Beggar's Holiday
Encyclopedia
Beggar's Holiday is a musical
with a book and lyrics by John La Touche and music by Duke Ellington
.
An updated version of The Beggar's Opera
by John Gay
, it focuses on a corrupt world inhabited by rakish mobsters and their double cross
ing gangs, raffish madam
s and their dissolute whores, panhandlers
and street people
as they conduct their dirty business, ply their trade, and struggle to survive in brothel
s, shanty towns, and prisons.
The Broadway
production, directed by Nicholas Ray
and choreographed by Valerie Bettis
, opened on December 26, 1946 at The Broadway Theatre
, where it ran for 111 performances. The cast included Alfred Drake
, Zero Mostel
, Thomas Gomez
, Avon Long
, and Herbert Ross
.
Beggar's Holiday, which proved to be Ellington's only book musical, included a miscegenation
relationship resulting in nightly picketing outside the theater that may have contributed to its short run.
No cast album was recorded, but a demo tape
was discovered and released, together with the score from the West End
musical Bet Your Life featuring Julie Wilson
and Sally Ann Howes
, on an LP
on the Blue Pear label http://www.broadway.com/gen/Buzz_Story.aspx?ci=519441. Lena Horne
's recording of "Tomorrow Mountain," the show's first-act closer, was a hit.
In 2004, Dale Wasserman
, one of the musical's producers and the author of Man of La Mancha
, teamed with the Marin Theatre Company
in Mill Valley, California
to create a revamped, updated, and radically rewritten version that toned down much of the original's social criticism and political humor. The substantially rearranged jazz
score included hints of funk
, blues
and rock and roll
. Overall, its mood was far lighter and more optimistic than that of the 1946 version. Although Wasserman had hopes of a Broadway staging, to date his plans have not materialized.
Act II
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
with a book and lyrics by John La Touche and music by Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
.
An updated version of The Beggar's Opera
The Beggar's Opera
The Beggar's Opera is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today...
by John Gay
John Gay
John Gay was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for The Beggar's Opera , set to music by Johann Christoph Pepusch...
, it focuses on a corrupt world inhabited by rakish mobsters and their double cross
Double cross
Double Cross may refer to:In film and television:* Double Cross , a film by Albert H. Kelley* Double Cross , a Bollywood action film* Double Cross , a Bollywood film...
ing gangs, raffish madam
Madam
Madam, or madame, is a polite title used for women which, in English, is the equivalent of Mrs. or Ms., and is often found abbreviated as "ma'am", and less frequently as "ma'm". It is derived from the French madame, which means "my lady", the feminine form of lord; the plural of ma dame in this...
s and their dissolute whores, panhandlers
Begging
Begging is to entreat earnestly, implore, or supplicate. It often occurs for the purpose of securing a material benefit, generally for a gift, donation or charitable donation...
and street people
Homelessness
Homelessness describes the condition of people without a regular dwelling. People who are homeless are unable or unwilling to acquire and maintain regular, safe, and adequate housing, or lack "fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence." The legal definition of "homeless" varies from country...
as they conduct their dirty business, ply their trade, and struggle to survive in brothel
Brothel
Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...
s, shanty towns, and prisons.
The Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
production, directed by Nicholas Ray
Nicholas Ray
Nicholas Ray was an American film director best known for the movie Rebel Without a Cause....
and choreographed by Valerie Bettis
Valerie Bettis
Valerie Elizabeth Bettis was an American modern dancer and choreographer. She found success in musical theatre, ballet, and as a solo dancer.-Biography:...
, opened on December 26, 1946 at The Broadway Theatre
The Broadway Theatre
The Broadway Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 1681 Broadway in midtown-Manhattan....
, where it ran for 111 performances. The cast included Alfred Drake
Alfred Drake
Alfred Drake was an American actor and singer.-Biography:Born as Alfred Capurro in New York City, the son of parents emigrated from Recco, Genoa, Drake began his Broadway career while still a student at Brooklyn College...
, Zero Mostel
Zero Mostel
Samuel Joel “Zero” Mostel was an American actor of stage and screen, best known for his portrayal of comic characters such as Tevye on stage in Fiddler on the Roof, Pseudolus on stage and on screen in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Max Bialystock in the original film version...
, Thomas Gomez
Thomas Gomez
Thomas Gomez was an American actor.Born Sabino Tomas Gomez in New York City, Gomez began his acting career in theater during the 1920s and was a student of the actor Walter Hampden...
, Avon Long
Avon Long
Avon Long was an American Broadway actor and singer.-Life:Long was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He performed in a number of Broadway shows, including Black Rhythm , Porgy and Bess , and Beggar's Holiday...
, and Herbert Ross
Herbert Ross
Herbert Ross was an American film director, producer, choreographer and actor.-Early life and career:Born Herbert David Ross in Brooklyn, New York, he made his stage debut as Third Witch with a touring company of Macbeth in 1942...
.
Beggar's Holiday, which proved to be Ellington's only book musical, included a miscegenation
Miscegenation
Miscegenation is the mixing of different racial groups through marriage, cohabitation, sexual relations, and procreation....
relationship resulting in nightly picketing outside the theater that may have contributed to its short run.
No cast album was recorded, but a demo tape
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
was discovered and released, together with the score from the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
musical Bet Your Life featuring Julie Wilson
Julie Wilson
Julie Wilson is an American singer and actress.Born in Omaha, Nebraska and first finding a musical outlet with local musical group Hank's Hepcats, Wilson headed to New York City during World War II and found work in two of Manhattan's leading nightclubs, the Latin Quarter and the Copacabana...
and Sally Ann Howes
Sally Ann Howes
Sally Ann Howes is a British actress and singer, who currently holds dual British-American citizenship. Her career on stage, screen and television has spanned over six decades...
, on an LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
on the Blue Pear label http://www.broadway.com/gen/Buzz_Story.aspx?ci=519441. Lena Horne
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...
's recording of "Tomorrow Mountain," the show's first-act closer, was a hit.
In 2004, Dale Wasserman
Dale Wasserman
Dale Wasserman was an American playwright. -Early life:Dale Wasserman was born in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, and was orphaned at the age of nine. He lived in a state orphanage and with an older brother in South Dakota before he "hit the rails". He later said:-Career:Wasserman worked in various...
, one of the musical's producers and the author of Man of La Mancha
Man of La Mancha
Man of La Mancha is a musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, lyrics by Joe Darion and music by Mitch Leigh. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay I, Don Quixote, which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cervantes's seventeenth century masterpiece Don Quixote...
, teamed with the Marin Theatre Company
Marin Theatre Company
The Marin Theatre Company is a professional regional theatre located in Mill Valley, California.It was founded as the Mill Valley Center for the Performing Arts by Sali Lieberman and Al White in 1966, with its first twenty seasons produced at the Mill Valley Golf Club...
in Mill Valley, California
Mill Valley, California
Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, United States located about north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge. The population was 13,903 at the 2010 census.Mill Valley is located on the western and northern shores of Richardson Bay...
to create a revamped, updated, and radically rewritten version that toned down much of the original's social criticism and political humor. The substantially rearranged jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
score included hints of funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
, blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
. Overall, its mood was far lighter and more optimistic than that of the 1946 version. Although Wasserman had hopes of a Broadway staging, to date his plans have not materialized.
Song list
Act I- In between
- When You Go Down By Miss Jenny's
- I've Got Me
- TNT
- Take Love Easy
- I Wanna Be Bad
- Rooster Man
- When I Walk With You
- I've Got Me (Reprise)
- The Scrimmage of Life
- Ore from a Gold Mine
- When I Walk With You (Reprise)
- Tooth and Claw
- Maybe I Should Change My Ways
- The Wrong Side of the Railroad Tracks
- Tomorrow Mountain
Act II
- Brown Penny (based on a poem by William Butler YeatsWilliam Butler YeatsWilliam Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
) - Tooth and Claw (Reprise)
- Lullaby for Junior
- Quarrel for Three
- Fol-de-rol-rol
- Women, Women, Women
- Women, Women, Women (Reprise)
- When I Walk With You (Reprise)
- The Hunted