Review: Let ‘em Eat Cake
February 1, 2009
Date reviewed: 29 January 2009
Venue: Leeds Grand Theatre and Opera House
The Gershwins’ Of Thee I Sing was one of the hits of 1931 and became the first musical to win a Pulitzer Prize; the follow-up, Let ’em Eat Cake, caused barely a ripple in 1933. Maybe by 1933 the Depression had just got too depressing and audiences wanted Ginger Rogers singing “I’m in the money”. Maybe the absence of potential hits counted against it: despite the through-composed style of much of both operettas, Of Thee I Sing still had the title song, ‘Love is Sweeping the Country’ and ‘Who Cares’. But my guess is that its cosmopolitan creators aimed too much of the satire at European targets for an American audience of the 1930s which was quite happy with Ruritania on stage, but balked at fascist dictatorships. Read more