Gay Divorce
Encyclopedia
Gay Divorce is a musical
with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and book by Dwight Taylor, adapted by Kenneth Webb
and Samuel Hoffenstein
. It was Fred Astaire
's last Broadway
show and featured the hit song "Night and Day
" in which Astaire danced with co-star Claire Luce.
It was made into a musical film
by RKO Radio Pictures in 1934, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
, and renamed The Gay Divorcee
.
Beach, where Egbert has arranged for a "paid co-respondent" to assist his client in obtaining a divorce from her boring, aging, geologist husband Robert. What Holden does not know is that the client is none other than Mimi, who in turn mistakes him — because he is too ashamed of his occupation to say what it is, namely pseudonymously writing cheap "bodice ripper" romance novels — for the paid co-respondent.
At the end, when her husband appears, he is unconvinced by the faked adultery—but is then unwittingly revealed, by the waiter at the resort, to have been genuinely adulterous himself.
Act II
‡new song for the London production, ‡‡for London production
Astaire's sister Adele
retired from showbusiness and married Lord Charles Cavendish
after her last show with Fred, The Band Wagon
(1931). When the producers of Gay Divorce asked Fred to star in the show, he deferred an answer until he could spend the summer of 1932 wooing his future wife, Phyllis, in London. He finally agreed, and rehearsals began in September 1932. The show was both Astaire's last Broadway musical (after which he moved to Hollywood) and also his only stage musical without Adele. Also in the cast were Erik Rhodes
and Eric Blore
who soon became famous in the early 1930s RKO comedies.
Gay Divorce opened in pre-Broadway tryouts at the Wilbur Theatre
, Boston
on November 7, 1932 and then moved to the Shubert Theatre
, New Haven on November 21, 1932. It opened on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre
on November 29, 1932 and transferred to the Shubert Theatre
on January 16, 1933 and closed on July 1, 1933 for a total run of 248 performances. Directed by Howard Lindsay
with choreography by Barbara Newberry and Carl Randall, and set design by Jo Mielziner
, the cast featured Fred Astaire
as Guy Holden, Claire Luce as Mimi, Luella Gear as Hortense, G. P. Huntley Jr as Teddy, Betty Starbuck as Barbara Wray, Erik Rhodes
as Tonetti, Eric Blore
as Waiter, and Roland Bottomley as Pratt.
The show opened in the West End
at the Palace Theatre
on November 2, 1933 and ran for 180 performances. It was directed by Felix Edwardes with Astaire, Luce, Rhodes and Blore reprising their roles. They were joined by Olive Blakeney as Gertrude Howard, Claud Allister as Teddy, Joan Gardner
as Barbara Wray and Fred Hearne as Octavius Mann.
The book is dated, and professional modern productions are rare. Goodspeed Opera House staged the show in 1983 and an adapted version was seen off-Broadway
in New York in 1987. A concert version was presented at Carnegie Hall
(Weill Recital Hall) in New York City in June 1993 and featured Robert Westenberg
as Guy, Rebecca Luker
as Mimi, Judy Kaye
as Hortense, and Kurt Ollmann as Tonetti. A "Musicals Tonight!" (New York City) concert production ran in March 2004. The regional company 42nd Street Moon produced the piece in San Francisco, California from April 12 - May 6, 2007.
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 music and lyrics by Cole Porter and book by Dwight Taylor, adapted by Kenneth Webb
Kenneth Webb
Kenneth S. Webb was an American film director, screenwriter, and composer noted for directing a number of films in the early age of the American film industry...
and Samuel Hoffenstein
Samuel Hoffenstein
Samuel "Sam" Hoffenstein was a screenwriter and a musical composer. Born in Russia, he immigrated to the United States and began a career in New York City as a newspaper writer and in the entertainment business. In 1931 he moved to Los Angeles where he lived for the rest of his life where he wrote...
. It was Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
's last 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...
show and featured the hit song "Night and Day
Night and Day (song)
"Night and Day" is a popular song by Cole Porter. It was written for the 1932 musical play Gay Divorce. It is perhaps Porter's most popular contribution to the Great American Songbook and has been recorded by dozens of artists....
" in which Astaire danced with co-star Claire Luce.
It was made into a musical film
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
by RKO Radio Pictures in 1934, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....
, and renamed The Gay Divorcee
The Gay Divorcee
The Gay Divorcee is a 1934 American film based on the musical play Gay Divorce written by Dwight Taylor, Kenneth S. Webb, Samuel Hoffenstein, with screenplay by George Marion Jr., Dorothy Yost and Edward Kaufman, from an unproduced play by J. Hartley Manners...
.
Plot
Guy Holden, an American writer traveling in England, falls madly in love with a woman named Mimi, who disappears after their first encounter. To take his mind off his lost love, his friend Teddy Egbert, a British attorney, takes him to BrightonBrighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
Beach, where Egbert has arranged for a "paid co-respondent" to assist his client in obtaining a divorce from her boring, aging, geologist husband Robert. What Holden does not know is that the client is none other than Mimi, who in turn mistakes him — because he is too ashamed of his occupation to say what it is, namely pseudonymously writing cheap "bodice ripper" romance novels — for the paid co-respondent.
At the end, when her husband appears, he is unconvinced by the faked adultery—but is then unwittingly revealed, by the waiter at the resort, to have been genuinely adulterous himself.
Songs
Act I- After You, Who?After You, Who?"After You, Who?" is a song written by Cole Porter for his 1932 musical Gay Divorce, where it was introduced by Fred Astaire.-Notable recordings:*Ella Fitzgerald - Dream Dancing...
- Why Marry Them?
- Salt Air
- I Still Love the Red, White and Blue
- After You, Who? (Reprise)
- Where Would You Get Your Coat? ‡‡ - Gertrude (from Fifty Million Frenchmen)
- Night and DayNight and Day (song)"Night and Day" is a popular song by Cole Porter. It was written for the 1932 musical play Gay Divorce. It is perhaps Porter's most popular contribution to the Great American Songbook and has been recorded by dozens of artists....
- How's Your Romance?
Act II
- What Will Become of Our England?
- I've Got You on My Mind
- Mr. and Mrs. Fitch
- I Love Only You ‡ - Tonetti
- You're in Love
‡new song for the London production, ‡‡for London production
Background and productions
Adele Astaire
Lady Charles Cavendish , better known as Adele Astaire, was an American dancer and entertainer. She was Fred Astaire's elder sister. Her birthdate was often given as 1897 or 1898, but the 1900 U.S...
retired from showbusiness and married Lord Charles Cavendish
Lord Charles Arthur Francis Cavendish
Lord Charles Arthur Francis Cavendish was the second son of Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire and his wife Lady Evelyn Emily Mary Petty-FitzMaurice....
after her last show with Fred, The Band Wagon
The Band Wagon (musical)
For the film, see The Band WagonThe Band Wagon is a musical revue with book by George S. Kaufman and Howard Dietz, lyrics by Howard Dietz and music by Arthur Schwartz. It first played on Broadway in 1931, running for 260 performances...
(1931). When the producers of Gay Divorce asked Fred to star in the show, he deferred an answer until he could spend the summer of 1932 wooing his future wife, Phyllis, in London. He finally agreed, and rehearsals began in September 1932. The show was both Astaire's last Broadway musical (after which he moved to Hollywood) and also his only stage musical without Adele. Also in the cast were Erik Rhodes
Erik Rhodes (actor)
Erik Rhodes was an American film and Broadway singer and actor. He is best remembered today for appearing in two classic Hollywood musical films with popular dancing team of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, The Gay Divorcee and Top Hat .-Biography:Born Ernest Sharpe at El Reno, Indian Territory,...
and Eric Blore
Eric Blore
Eric Blore was an English comic actor. Blore was born in Finchley , England.Aged eighteeen, he worked as an insurance agent for two years. He gained theatre experience while touring Australia. Originally enlisting into the Artists Rifles he was commissioned in the South Wales Borderers in World...
who soon became famous in the early 1930s RKO comedies.
Gay Divorce opened in pre-Broadway tryouts at the Wilbur Theatre
Wilbur Theatre
Wilbur Theatre is a historic theater at 244-250 Tremont Street in Boston, Massachusetts. It is located in Boston's theatre district.Clarence Blackall built the theatre in 1913. The National Historic Register added the Wilbur in 1980....
, Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
on November 7, 1932 and then moved to the Shubert Theatre
Shubert Theatre (New Haven)
The Shubert Theatre is a 1600-seat theatre located at 247 College Street in New Haven, Connecticut. Originally opened in 1914, it was designed by Albert Swazey, a New York architect and built by the H.E. Murdock Construction Company...
, New Haven on November 21, 1932. It opened on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre
Ethel Barrymore Theatre
The Ethel Barrymore Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 243 West 47th Street in midtown-Manhattan, named for actress Ethel Barrymore....
on November 29, 1932 and transferred to the Shubert Theatre
Shubert Theatre (Broadway)
The Shubert Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 225 West 44th Street in midtown-Manhattan, New York, United States.Designed by architect Henry Beaumont Herts, it was named after Sam S. Shubert, the second oldest of the three brothers of the theatrical producing family...
on January 16, 1933 and closed on July 1, 1933 for a total run of 248 performances. Directed by Howard Lindsay
Howard Lindsay
Howard Lindsay was an American theatrical producer, playwright, librettist, director and actor. He is best known for his writing work as part of the collaboration of Lindsay and Crouse, and for his performance, with his wife Dorothy Stickney, in the long-running play Life with...
with choreography by Barbara Newberry and Carl Randall, and set design by Jo Mielziner
Jo Mielziner
Joseph "Jo" Mielziner was an American theatrical scenic, and lighting designer born in Paris, France. He is "the most successful set designer of the Golden era of Broadway", and worked on both stage plays and musicals.-Career:He was the son of artist Leo Mielziner, Sr...
, the cast featured Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
as Guy Holden, Claire Luce as Mimi, Luella Gear as Hortense, G. P. Huntley Jr as Teddy, Betty Starbuck as Barbara Wray, Erik Rhodes
Erik Rhodes (actor)
Erik Rhodes was an American film and Broadway singer and actor. He is best remembered today for appearing in two classic Hollywood musical films with popular dancing team of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, The Gay Divorcee and Top Hat .-Biography:Born Ernest Sharpe at El Reno, Indian Territory,...
as Tonetti, Eric Blore
Eric Blore
Eric Blore was an English comic actor. Blore was born in Finchley , England.Aged eighteeen, he worked as an insurance agent for two years. He gained theatre experience while touring Australia. Originally enlisting into the Artists Rifles he was commissioned in the South Wales Borderers in World...
as Waiter, and Roland Bottomley as Pratt.
The show opened in 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...
at the Palace Theatre
Palace Theatre, London
The Palace Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster in London. It is an imposing red-brick building that dominates the west side of Cambridge Circus and is located near the intersection of Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road...
on November 2, 1933 and ran for 180 performances. It was directed by Felix Edwardes with Astaire, Luce, Rhodes and Blore reprising their roles. They were joined by Olive Blakeney as Gertrude Howard, Claud Allister as Teddy, Joan Gardner
Joan Gardner
Joan Gardner was a British actress. She married Zoltán Korda and had a son, David.Joan was born in Chesham, Bucks, UK. She made her stage debut immediately on leaving school and by age 18 had achieved success there...
as Barbara Wray and Fred Hearne as Octavius Mann.
The book is dated, and professional modern productions are rare. Goodspeed Opera House staged the show in 1983 and an adapted version was seen off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
in New York in 1987. A concert version was presented at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
(Weill Recital Hall) in New York City in June 1993 and featured Robert Westenberg
Robert Westenberg
Robert Westenberg is an American musical theatre actor and acting teacher. He married actress and singer Kim Crosby on June 19, 1991, and the couple now have three children.-Early Life:...
as Guy, Rebecca Luker
Rebecca Luker
Rebecca Luker is an American musical theatre actress and soprano who has appeared in several prominent Broadway productions.-Life and career:...
as Mimi, Judy Kaye
Judy Kaye
Judy Kaye is an American singer and actress. She has appeared in stage musicals, plays, and operas. Kaye has been in long runs on Broadway in the musicals The Phantom of the Opera, Ragtime and Mamma Mia!-Biography:...
as Hortense, and Kurt Ollmann as Tonetti. A "Musicals Tonight!" (New York City) concert production ran in March 2004. The regional company 42nd Street Moon produced the piece in San Francisco, California from April 12 - May 6, 2007.