Miss Liberty
Encyclopedia
Miss Liberty is a musical
with a book
by Robert E. Sherwood
and music and lyrics by Irving Berlin
. It is based on the sculpting of the Statue of Liberty
in 1886. The score includes the song "Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor," a musical setting of the poem "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus
that is on the base of the monument.
publisher James Gordon Bennett
assigns novice reporter Horace Miller to find the woman who served as Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi's model for the Statue of Liberty. In the artist's Paris
studio, Miller sees a photograph of Monique DuPont and mistakenly believes she was Bartholdi's inspiration. Bennett arranges for the girl and her grandmother to accompany Horace back to New York City
, where Monique becomes a media darling. When rival publisher Joseph Pulitzer
discovers it was Bartholdi's mother who actually posed for him, he exposes Monique as a fraud in his New York World
. She faces deportation until a sympathetic Pultizer comes to her rescue, paving the way for her to plan a future with Horace, who jilts his American girlfriend Maisie Doll in favor of the French beauty.
, Robert Sherwood was deeply moved when he saw what the Statue of Liberty meant to American GIs who were being shipped overseas, and he wanted to write a story about this symbol of freedom. While crossing the Atlantic
on the Queen Mary
with 15,000 recruits, the playwright had been "deeply moved" and "greatly impressed by the emotion that sight of the statue generated among these soldiers." Upon meeting Irving Berlin in England, he invited him to compose the score, and Berlin suggested Moss Hart
become part of the creative team as a co-producer and director. The book and score were completed in May 1949 and a cast of fifty-five began rehearsals. The musical opened in Philadelphia on June 13 and, despite mostly negative reviews, the four-week long run was a sellout, resulting in a profit of $175,000.
With an advance sale of $500,000, the Broadway
production opened at the Imperial Theatre on July 15, 1949 and closed on April 8, 1950, following 308 performances. Directed by Moss Hart and choreographed by Jerome Robbins
, the cast included Eddie Albert
as Horace Miller, Allyn McLerie
as Monique DuPont, Mary McCarty
as Maisie Doll, Philip Bourneuf
as Joseph Pulitzer, and Charles Dingle
as James Gordon Bennett, with Maria Karnilova
and Tommy Rall
among the supporting players. Oliver Smith
designed the sets and costumes. The 1950 Tony Award
for Best Stage Technician
was won by Joe Lynn
.
Brooks Atkinson
of the New York Times called the musical "disappointing," Ward Morehouse
of the New York Sun thought it was a "sharp disappointment," Richard Watts, Jr.
of the New York Post
felt it was "only pretty fair," and the Variety
critic, citing an "overly-plotty book, undistinguished score, insufficient comedy and merely adequate performances," described it as "something of a clinker." Despite the poor reviews, many of its songs become popular hits, and 98 singles and three albums of the show's tunes were released. Weekly profits ranged from $5,000 to $9,000, although a six-week tour lost about $25,000.
42nd Street Moon in San Francisco produced the musical in November 2005.
Act 2
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
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by Robert E. Sherwood
Robert E. Sherwood
Robert Emmet Sherwood was an American playwright, editor, and screenwriter.-Biography:Born in New Rochelle, New York, he was a son of Arthur Murray Sherwood, a rich stockbroker, and his wife, the former Rosina Emmet, a well-known illustrator and portrait painter known as Rosina E. Sherwood...
and music and lyrics by Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...
. It is based on the sculpting of the Statue of Liberty
Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886...
in 1886. The score includes the song "Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor," a musical setting of the poem "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus
Emma Lazarus
Lazarus began to be more interested in her Jewish ancestry after reading the George Eliot novel, Daniel Deronda, and as she heard of the Russian pogroms in the early 1880s. This led Lazarus to write articles on the subject. She also began translating the works of Jewish poets into English...
that is on the base of the monument.
Plot
In 1885, New York HeraldNew York Herald
The New York Herald was a large distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between May 6, 1835, and 1924.-History:The first issue of the paper was published by James Gordon Bennett, Sr., on May 6, 1835. By 1845 it was the most popular and profitable daily newspaper in the UnitedStates...
publisher James Gordon Bennett
James Gordon Bennett, Jr.
James Gordon Bennett, Jr. was publisher of the New York Herald, founded by his father, James Gordon Bennett, Sr., who emigrated from Scotland. He was generally known as Gordon Bennett to distinguish him from his father....
assigns novice reporter Horace Miller to find the woman who served as Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi's model for the Statue of Liberty. In the artist's Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
studio, Miller sees a photograph of Monique DuPont and mistakenly believes she was Bartholdi's inspiration. Bennett arranges for the girl and her grandmother to accompany Horace back to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where Monique becomes a media darling. When rival publisher Joseph Pulitzer
Joseph Pulitzer
Joseph Pulitzer April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911), born Politzer József, was a Hungarian-American newspaper publisher of the St. Louis Post Dispatch and the New York World. Pulitzer introduced the techniques of "new journalism" to the newspapers he acquired in the 1880s and became a leading...
discovers it was Bartholdi's mother who actually posed for him, he exposes Monique as a fraud in his New York World
New York World
The New York World was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers...
. She faces deportation until a sympathetic Pultizer comes to her rescue, paving the way for her to plan a future with Horace, who jilts his American girlfriend Maisie Doll in favor of the French beauty.
Background and productions
During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Robert Sherwood was deeply moved when he saw what the Statue of Liberty meant to American GIs who were being shipped overseas, and he wanted to write a story about this symbol of freedom. While crossing the Atlantic
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
on the Queen Mary
RMS Queen Mary
RMS Queen Mary is a retired ocean liner that sailed primarily in the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967 for the Cunard Line...
with 15,000 recruits, the playwright had been "deeply moved" and "greatly impressed by the emotion that sight of the statue generated among these soldiers." Upon meeting Irving Berlin in England, he invited him to compose the score, and Berlin suggested Moss Hart
Moss Hart
Moss Hart was an American playwright and theatre director, best known for his interpretations of musical theater on Broadway.-Early years:...
become part of the creative team as a co-producer and director. The book and score were completed in May 1949 and a cast of fifty-five began rehearsals. The musical opened in Philadelphia on June 13 and, despite mostly negative reviews, the four-week long run was a sellout, resulting in a profit of $175,000.
With an advance sale of $500,000, 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 opened at the Imperial Theatre on July 15, 1949 and closed on April 8, 1950, following 308 performances. Directed by Moss Hart and choreographed by Jerome Robbins
Jerome Robbins
Jerome Robbins was an American theater producer, director, and choreographer known primarily for Broadway Theater and Ballet/Dance, but who also occasionally directed films and directed/produced for television. His work has included everything from classical ballet to contemporary musical theater...
, the cast included Eddie Albert
Eddie Albert
Edward Albert Heimberger , known professionally as Eddie Albert, was an American actor and activist. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1954 for his performance in Roman Holiday, and in 1973 for The Heartbreak Kid.Other well-known screen roles of his include Bing...
as Horace Miller, Allyn McLerie
Allyn McLerie
Allyn Ann McLerie is a Canadian-born, Brooklyn-reared actress, singer and dancer who worked with most of Golden Age musical theatre's major choreographers, including George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille, and Jerome Robbins.McLerie made her Broadway debut as a teenager in Kurt Weill's One Touch of Venus...
as Monique DuPont, Mary McCarty
Mary McCarty
Mary McCarty was a County Commissioner in Palm Beach County, Florida from November 1990 until her resignation - announced on January 8, 2009. Along with her husband, Kevin McCarty, she steered bond deals with the county government, the county's Housing Finance Authority, the city of Delray Beach,...
as Maisie Doll, Philip Bourneuf
Philip Bourneuf
Philip Bourneuf was an American character actor who had a long stage career before appearing in films....
as Joseph Pulitzer, and Charles Dingle
Charles Dingle
Charles Dingle was an American stage and film actor.He was best-known for his role as Ben Hubbard in The Little Foxes and for his role as a senator in the film version of Call Me Madam...
as James Gordon Bennett, with Maria Karnilova
Maria Karnilova
Maria Karnilova was an American actress.Born as Maria Kasnilovich in Hartford, Connecticut, Maria Karnilova made her Broadway debut in Call Me Mister in 1946...
and Tommy Rall
Tommy Rall
Thomas Edward "Tommy" Rall is an American ballet dancer, tap dancer and acrobatic dancer who was a prominent featured player in 1950s musical comedies...
among the supporting players. Oliver Smith
Oliver Smith (designer)
Oliver Smith was an American scenic designer.Born in Waupun, Wisconsin, Smith attended Penn State, after which he moved to New York City and began to form friendships that blossomed into working relationships with such talents as Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Carson McCullers, and Agnes de...
designed the sets and costumes. The 1950 Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
for Best Stage Technician
Tony Award for Best Stage Technician
The Tony Award for Stage Technician was first given in 1948 and was last presented fifteen years later in 1963.-1950s:* 1950: Joe Lynn, master propertyman – Miss Liberty...
was won by Joe Lynn
Joe Lynn (property master)
Joe Lynn is a Tony Award winning American theatrical Property master who worked primarily on Broadway. He is best known for creating the properties on the original Broadway productions such as Death of a Salesman and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof...
.
Brooks Atkinson
Brooks Atkinson
Justin Brooks Atkinson was an American theatre critic. He worked for The New York Times from 1925 to 1960...
of the New York Times called the musical "disappointing," Ward Morehouse
Ward Morehouse
Ward Morehouse was an American theater critic, newspaper columnist, playwright, and author.-Biography:...
of the New York Sun thought it was a "sharp disappointment," Richard Watts, Jr.
Richard Watts, Jr.
Richard Watts, Jr. was an American theatre critic.Born in Parkersburg, West Virginia, Watts was educated at Columbia University. He began his writing career as the film critic for the New York Herald Tribune before assuming the post of the newspaper's drama critic in 1936.After spending World War...
of the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
felt it was "only pretty fair," and the Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
critic, citing an "overly-plotty book, undistinguished score, insufficient comedy and merely adequate performances," described it as "something of a clinker." Despite the poor reviews, many of its songs become popular hits, and 98 singles and three albums of the show's tunes were released. Weekly profits ranged from $5,000 to $9,000, although a six-week tour lost about $25,000.
42nd Street Moon in San Francisco produced the musical in November 2005.
Songs
Act 1- Extra, Extra - Newsboys and Ensemble
- What Do I Have to Do to Get My Picture Took? - Maisie Doll, Horace Miller and Dancers
- The Most Expensive Statue in the World - Joseph Pulitzer, James Gordon Bennett, The Mayor, Singers and Dancers
- A Little Fish in a Big Pond - Horace Miller, Maisie Doll and The Sharks
- Let's Take an Old-Fashioned Walk - Horace Miller, Monique DuPont, Singers and Dancers
- Homework - Maisie Doll
- Paris Wakes Up Smiles A Lamplighter, Monique DuPont and Ensemble
- Only for Americans The Countess, Horace Miller, Singers and Dancers
- Just One Way to Say I Love You Horace Miller and Monique DuPont
Act 2
- Miss Liberty - Entire Company
- The Train - Monique DuPont and The Train
- You Can Have Him - Maisie Doll and Monique DuPont
- The Policeman's Ball - Maisie Doll, The Dandy and Ensemble
- Homework (Reprise) - Maisie Doll
- Follow the Leader Jig - Ensemble
- Me and My Bundle - Horace Miller, Monique DuPont and Company
- Falling Out of Love Can Be Fun - Maisie Doll
- Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor (From the poem "The New Colossus" Emma Lazarus) - Monique DuPont and Singers