Lady Be Good!

Synopsis

Dick and Susie Trevor are penniless siblings evicted from their Rhode Island mansion. Dick is determined to marry the wealthy Josephine Vanderwater in order to return to solvency but Susie is equally determined to save Dick from a loveless marriage by posing as a Spanish widow in order to claim a substantial inheritance.

Our Review:

20 July 2007

This is a four-star-for-fun review, with slight style reservations. Straggly wigs, wilting hem-lines and a tactical misuse of the show’s biggest number – “Fascinatin’ Rhythm” – as an overture with dancers picking their way too gingerly down a scenic piano keyboard, are not good for the nerves.

But what a joyous, well-written show this is, not just for its music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin, collaborating for the first time on Broadway in 1924, but also for its book by Guy Bolton and Fred Thompson. They provide zany, surreal comedy and the best worst musical theatre gag I’ve heard in a long time: “The girl’s doing five years in Canto Canto; that’s Spanish for Sing Sing”. Okay, you have to be there, and perhaps you should be.

Fred Astaire and his sister Adele were the first stars. Their roles of Dick and Susie Trevor, siblings suddenly fallen on poverty row in Rhode Island, are charmingly taken by blond, high-cheek-boned Chris Ellis-Stanton and muscular,...

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Latest User Review

anon - 25 August 2007:

I agree with the last reviewer what a superb production of a Broadway classic. I also hope it gets a transfer. Well done to all concerned and thank you God for the weather last night!...

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