The Passing Show of 1918 is a Broadway musical revue

Revue

A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932...

 featuring music of Sigmund Romberg

Sigmund Romberg

Sigmund Romberg was a Hungarian-born American composer, best known for his operettas.-Biography:Romberg was born as Siegmund Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Gross-Kanizsa during the Austro-Hungarian kaiserlich und königlich monarchy period...

 and Jean Schwartz

Jean Schwartz

Jean Schwartz was a songwriter.Schwartz was born in Budapest, Hungary. His family moved to New York City when he was 13 years old...

 (and other songwriters), with book and lyrics by Harold R. Atteridge

Harold R. Atteridge

Harold Richard Atteridge was a composer, librettist and lyricist primarily for musicals and revues. He wrote the book and lyrics for over 20 musicals and revues for the Shuberts, including several iterations of The Passing Show....

. The show introduced the hit songs "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles

I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles

"I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" is a popular song which debuted in 1918 and was first published in 1919.-Creation:The music was written by John Kellette. The lyrics are credited to "Jaan Kenbrovin", actually a collective pseudonym for the writers James Kendis, James Brockman and Nat Vincent...

" and "Smiles".

Staged by J. C. Huffman and choreographed by Jack Mason, the show debuted at the Winter Garden Theater on July 25, 1918. Playing for 142 performances, it closed on November 9 of the same year. The show was produced by Lee

Lee Shubert

Levi "Lee" Shubert was a Polish-born American theatre owner/operator and producer and the oldest of seven siblings of the theatrical Shubert family....

 and Jacob J. Shubert

Jacob J. Shubert

Jacob J. Shubert was naturalized American theatre owner/operator and producer and a member of the famous theatrical Shubert family....

. The production featured It is noted as an early appearance of 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...

 (with his sister Adele

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...

). The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

called it "rattling good entertainment" and praised the "vaudeville team" of Fred and Adele Astaire, as well as the brothers Willie and Eugene Howard.

Background

The original The Passing Show

The Passing Show

The Passing Show was a musical revue in three acts, billed as a "topical extravaganza", with a book and lyrics by Sydney Rosenfeld and music by Ludwig Engländer and various other composers. It featured spoofs of theatrical productions of the past season. The show was presented in 1894 by George...

revue was presented in 1894 by George Lederer

George Lederer

George Lederer was an American producer and director on Broadway from 1894 to 1931. He was the husband of Reine Davies and father of Charles Lederer and Pepi Lederer....

 at the Casino Theatre. It featured spoofs of theatrical productions of the past season. It was one of the first musical revues on 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...

 and led the fashion for such productions. The Casino Theatre produced a revue each summer thereafter for several seasons. In 1912, Lee and Jacob J. Shubert

Shubert family

The Shubert family of New York City, New York was responsible for the establishment of the Broadway district, in New York City, as the hub of the theatre industry in the United States...

 began an annual series of twelve elaborate Broadway revues at the Winter Garden, using the name The Passing Show of 19XX, designed to compete with the popular Ziegfeld Follies

Ziegfeld Follies

The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....

. They featured libretti by Atteridge and music usually by Romberg, George Gershwin

George Gershwin

George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...

 or Herman Finck

Herman Finck

Herman Finck was a British composer of Dutch extraction.Born Hermann Van Der Vinck in London, he began his studies training at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and established a career as the musical director at the Palace Theatre in London , with whose orchestra he made many virtuoso...

. Willie and Eugene Howard starred in many editions of the series. Other stars included Charlotte Greenwood

Charlotte Greenwood

Frances Charlotte Greenwood was an American actress and dancer. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Greenwood started in vaudeville, and eventually starred on Broadway, movies and radio. Standing around six feet tall, she was best known for her long legs and high kicks...

, Marilyn Miller

Marilyn Miller

Marilyn Miller was one of the most popular Broadway musical stars of the 1920s and early 1930s. She was an accomplished tap dancer, singer and actress, but it was the combination of these talents that endeared her to audiences. On stage she usually played rags-to-riches Cinderella characters who...

, Ed Wynn

Ed Wynn

Ed Wynn was a popular American comedian and actor noted for his Perfect Fool comedy character, his pioneering radio show of the 1930s, and his later career as a dramatic actor....

, De Wolf Hopper, Charles Winninger

Charles Winninger

Charles Winninger was an American stage and film actor, most often cast in comedies or musicals, but equally at home in drama.-Biography:He began as a vaudeville actor...

, 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...

 and his sister Adele

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...

, Marie Dressler

Marie Dressler

Marie Dressler was a Canadian-American actress and Depression-era film star. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1930-31 in Min and Bill.-Early life and stage career:...

 and Fred Allen

Fred Allen

Fred Allen was an American comedian whose absurdist, topically pointed radio show made him one of the most popular and forward-looking humorists in the so-called classic era of American radio.His best-remembered gag was his long-running mock feud with friend and fellow comedian Jack Benny, but it...

.

Synopsis

The revue was structured into thirteen scenes, tied together by parodies of the previous season's shows.

Musical numbers

Act 1

• I (Really) Can't Make My Feet Behave
• War Stamps (Won't You Buy a War Stamp?) (Music By Ray Perkins)
• My Baby Talking Girl (My Baby-Talk Lady)
• Go West, Young Girl (Music by Russell Tarbox)
• Trombone Jazz
• My Vampire Girl
• Squab Farm
• The Shimmy Sisters
• On the Level, You're a Devil, But I'll Soon Make An Angel Out of You (Lyrics by Joe Young)
• (That Soothing) Serenade (Music and lyrics by Harry DeCosta)
• Bring on the Girls

Act 2

• Twit, Twit, Twit
• My Holiday Girls (Music by Augustus Barratt)
• Quick Service
• (The) Galli Curci Rag
• Smiles (Lyrics by J. Will Callahan; music by Lee S. Roberts
  Lee S. Roberts
  Leland Stanford Roberts , commonly known as Lee S. Roberts, was an American composer and pianist.He is best known for his composition 'Smiles', written in 1917, but was a prolific composer across many genres of music....
  
  )
• I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles
  I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles
  "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" is a popular song which debuted in 1918 and was first published in 1919.-Creation:The music was written by John Kellette. The lyrics are credited to "Jaan Kenbrovin", actually a collective pseudonym for the writers James Kendis, James Brockman and Nat Vincent...
  
  (Music by John Kellette; lyrics by Jaan Kenbrovin)
• My Duchess of the Long Ago
• Boots
• Dress, Dress, Dress

External links

• The Passing Show of 1918 on Internet Broadway Database