Gershwin: Stage Works
View all works by Gershwin in the main appExplore the complete catalog of Stage compositions by Gershwin. This curated list includes composition years, historical Wikipedia context, and interactive audio to add specific tracks directly to your listening queue.
| Title | Year | Actions |
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| Blue Monday |
Blue Monday (Opera à la Afro-American) was the original name of a one-act "jazz opera" by George Gershwin, renamed 135th Street during a later production. The English libretto was written by Buddy DeSylva. Though a short piece, with a running time of between twenty and thirty minutes, Blue Monday is often considered the blueprint to many of Gershwin's later works, and the "first piece of symphonic jazz" in that it was the first significant attempt to fuse forms of classical music such as opera with American popular music, with the opera largely influenced by Jazz and the African-American culture of Harlem. |
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| East Is West |
East/West is the 18th album, first double CD and first live album by Bill Frisell to be released on the Elektra Nonesuch label. Released in 2005, it features performances by Frisell, Viktor Krauss and Kenny Wollesen which were recorded at Yoshi's in Oakland, California on May 8–11, 2003 (CD 1 – West) and performances by Frisell with Tony Scherr and Kenny Wollesen recorded on December 9–12, 2003 at the Village Vanguard in New York City (CD2 – East). An additional second set of material from both the "East" and "West" venues was made available as a downloadable album Further East/Further West. |
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| Funny Face |
Funny Face is a 1957 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Stanley Donen and written by Leonard Gershe, containing assorted songs by George and Ira Gershwin. Although having the same title as the 1927 Broadway musical Funny Face by the Gershwin brothers, and featuring the same male star (Fred Astaire), the plot is completely different and only four of the songs from the stage musical are included. Alongside Astaire, the film stars Audrey Hepburn and Kay Thompson. |
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| George White's Scandals of 1922 |
George White's Scandals were a long-running string of Broadway revues produced by George White that ran from 1919–1939, modeled after the Ziegfeld Follies. The "Scandals" launched the careers of many entertainers, including W. C. Fields, the Three Stooges, Ray Bolger, Helen Morgan, Ethel Merman, Ann Miller, Eleanor Powell, Bert Lahr and Rudy Vallée. Louise Brooks, Dolores Costello, Barbara Pepper, and Alice Faye got their show business start as lavishly (or scantily) dressed chorus girls strutting to the "Scandal Walk". The Black Bottom, danced by Ziegfeld Follies star Ann Pennington and Tom Patricola, touched off a national dance craze. Several dozen of George Gershwin's songs first appeared in the 1920–24 editions of Scandals, mostly with lyricists Arthur Jackson for the first two years and Buddy De Sylva and E. Ray Goetz thereafter. Two of these songs became standards: "Stairway to Paradise" (1922, lyrics by De Sylva and Ira Gershwin under his early pseudonym, "Arthur Francis") and "Somebody Loves Me" (1924, lyrics by Ballard MacDonald and De Sylva). George Gershwin and De Sylva's twenty-minute opera Blue Monday was first performed in the 1922 edition but dropped after opening night. George White's Scandals is also the name of several movies set within the Scandals, all of which focus primarily on the show's acts, with a thin backstage plot stringing them all together. The best known of these was 1934's George White's Scandals, with music and additional dialogue by Jack Yellen, which marked the film debut of Alice Faye. Flapper-era cartoonist and designer Russell Patterson worked on Broadway in various capacities; for George White's Scandals of 1936, he served as scenic designer. George White's Scandals of 1920 was featured in a film-length episode in the television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.Young Indiana Jones and the Scandal of 1920 is the 8th episode in the second season. |
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| Girl Crazy |
Girl Crazy is a 1943 American musical film starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. Produced by the Freed Unit of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it is based on the stage musical Girl Crazy – which was written by Guy Bolton and Jack McGowan, with music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin. It was the last of Garland and Rooney's nine movies as co-stars, the pair appearing only once more together on film, as guest stars in 1948's Words and Music. Production began with Busby Berkeley as director, but he was soon replaced by Norman Taurog. The film used six songs from the original stage musical, plus another Gershwin song, "Fascinating Rhythm". |
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| La-la-Lucille |
La La Lucille is a musical with a book by Fred Jackson, primary lyrics by Arthur J. Jackson (1893–1922) and Buddy DeSylva, additional lyrics by Lou Paley and Irving Caesar, and music by George Gershwin. |
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| Lady, Be Good! |
"Oh, Lady Be Good!" is a 1924 song by George and Ira Gershwin. It was introduced by Walter Catlett in the Broadway musical Lady, Be Good! written by Guy Bolton, Fred Thompson, and the Gershwin brothers and starring Fred and Adele Astaire. The song was also performed by the chorus in the film Lady Be Good (1941), although the film is unrelated to the musical. Recordings in 1925 were by Paul Whiteman, Carl Fenton, and Cliff Edwards. A 1947 recording of the song became a hit for Ella Fitzgerald, notable for her scat solo. For her album Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook (1959), it was sung as a ballad arranged by Nelson Riddle. |
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| Let 'Em Eat Cake |
Let 'Em Eat Cake is a 1933 Broadway musical with music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind. A political satire, it tells the story of a fictional American president who fails to get reelected. Inspired by fascism in Europe, he and the former vice president decide to overthrow the government. The sequel to the Pulitzer prize-winning Of Thee I Sing, a light-hearted comedy about the election of President Wintergreen, Let 'Em Eat Cake fell flat with audiences and critics when it opened in October 1933 due to its much darker tone. A review in TIME magazine panned the libretto for "[wandering] dreamily away into demented unreality" with its focus on revolution and dictatorship. |
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| Of Thee I Sing |
Of Thee I Sing is a musical with a score by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and a book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind. The musical lampoons American politics; the story concerns John P. Wintergreen, who runs for President of the United States on the "love" platform. When he falls in love with the sensible Mary Turner instead of Diana Devereaux, the beautiful pageant winner selected for him, he gets into political hot water. The original Broadway production, directed by Kaufman, opened in 1931 and ran for 441 performances, gaining critical and box office success. It has been revived twice on Broadway and in concert stagings in the U.S. and in London. In 1932, Of Thee I Sing was the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. |
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| Oh, Kay! |
Oh, Kay! is a musical with music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and a book by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse. It is based on the play La Présidente by Maurice Hennequin and Pierre Veber. The plot revolves around the adventures of the Duke of Durham and his sister, Lady Kay, English bootleggers in Prohibition Era America. Kay finds herself falling in love with a man who seems unavailable. The show is remembered for its enduring song, "Someone to Watch Over Me". The musical opened on Broadway in 1926, starring Gertrude Lawrence and Victor Moore, and ran for 256 performances. The musical then opened in London's West End in 1927, starring Lawrence and John Kirby, where it ran for 213 performances. |
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| Pardon My English |
Pardon My English is a musical with a book by Herbert Fields and Morrie Ryskind, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and music by George Gershwin. Set in 1933 Dresden, the farcical plot satirizes the Prohibition era. |
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| Porgy and Bess |
Porgy and Bess ( PORG-ee) is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play Porgy, itself an adaptation of DuBose Heyward's 1925 novel Porgy. Porgy and Bess was first performed in Boston on September 30, 1935, before it moved to Broadway in New York City. It featured a cast of classically trained African-American singers—a daring artistic choice at the time. A 1976 Houston Grand Opera production gained it a renewed popularity, and it is now one of the best known and most frequently performed operas. The libretto of Porgy and Bess tells the story of Porgy, a disabled black street beggar living in the slums of Charleston. It deals with his attempts to rescue Bess from the clutches of Crown, her violent and possessive lover, and Sportin' Life, her drug dealer. The opera plot generally follows the stage play. In the years following Gershwin's death, Porgy and Bess was adapted for smaller-scale performances. It was adapted as a film in 1959. Some of the songs in the opera, such as "Summertime", became popular and are frequently recorded. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the trend has been toward productions with greater fidelity to Gershwin's original intentions, though smaller-scale productions also continue to be mounted. A complete recorded version of the score was released in 1976; since then, it has been recorded several times. |
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| Primrose |
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned jazz, popular and classical music. Among his best-known works are the songs "Swanee" (1919) and "Fascinating Rhythm" (1924), the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and An American in Paris (1928), the jazz standards "Embraceable You" (1928) and "I Got Rhythm" (1930) and the opera Porgy and Bess (1935), which included the hit "Summertime". His Of Thee I Sing (1931) was the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Gershwin studied piano under Charles Hambitzer and composition with Rubin Goldmark, Henry Cowell, and Joseph Brody. He began his career as a song plugger but soon started composing Broadway theater works with his brother Ira Gershwin and with Buddy DeSylva. He moved to Paris, intending to study with Nadia Boulanger, but she refused him, afraid that rigorous classical study would ruin his jazz-influenced style; Maurice Ravel voiced similar objections when Gershwin inquired about studying with him. He subsequently composed An American in Paris, returned to New York City and wrote Porgy and Bess with Ira and DuBose Heyward. Initially a commercial failure, it came to be considered one of the most important American operas of the 20th century and an American cultural classic. Gershwin moved to Hollywood and composed several film scores. He died in 1937, only 38 years old, of a brain tumor. His compositions have been adapted for use in film and television, with many becoming jazz standards. |
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| Rosalie |
Rosalie is a musical with music by George Gershwin and Sigmund Romberg, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and P.G. Wodehouse, and book by William Anthony McGuire and Guy Bolton. The story tells of a princess from a faraway land who comes to the United States of America and falls in love with a West Point Lieutenant. It was first produced on Broadway in 1928 at the New Amsterdam Theatre. It was adapted in 1937 as a musical film with songs by Cole Porter. |
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| Show Girl |
Ira Gershwin (born Israel Gershovitz; December 6, 1896 – August 17, 1983) was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs in the English language of the 20th century. With George, he wrote more than a dozen Broadway shows, featuring songs such as "I Got Rhythm", "Embraceable You", "The Man I Love", and "Someone to Watch Over Me". He was also responsible, along with DuBose Heyward, for the libretto to George's opera Porgy and Bess. The success the Gershwin brothers had with their collaborative works has often overshadowed the creative role that Ira played. His mastery of songwriting continued after George's early death in 1937. Ira wrote additional hit songs with composers Kurt Weill, Jerome Kern and Harold Arlen. His critically acclaimed 1959 book Lyrics on Several Occasions, an amalgam of autobiography and annotated anthology, is widely considered an important source for studying the art of the lyricist in the golden age of American popular song. |
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| Strike Up the Band |
Strike Up the Band is a 1927 musical with a book by Morrie Ryskind, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and music by George Gershwin. It first ran as a satirical show in Philadelphia that year, unsuccessfully, and on Broadway in 1930 after the original book by George S. Kaufman was revised by Ryskind. The show concerned a cheese manufacturer who sponsors a war against Switzerland because it will be named after him. Much of the satire of the 1927 version was replaced in the new version by silliness, leading Ryskind to recall, "What I had to do, in a sense, was to rewrite War and Peace for the Three Stooges." In the 1930 version the opening of Act I of the musical was reset from a cheese factory to a chocolate factory, and much of the work was re-imagined as occurring during a dream sequence. Aside from the title tune, the 1940 Judy Garland-Mickey Rooney musical film Strike Up the Band had no relation to the stage production. The overture is often performed as a stand-alone concert work. |
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| Tell Me More |
Tell Me More is a musical written by Fred Thompson and William K. Wells, with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by B. G. DeSylva and Ira Gershwin. It opened on Broadway at the Gaiety Theatre in April 1925 and in London in the same year at the Winter Garden Theatre. |
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| Tip-Toes |
Tip-Toes is a musical with a book by Guy Bolton and Fred Thompson, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and music by George Gershwin. It centers on a vaudeville act composed of Tip-Toes, her brother and her uncle, who try to pass her off as an aristocrat to snare a millionaire husband. Farcical complications ensue involving Tip-Toes' temporary amnesia and a marital infidelity subplot. The musical was modestly successful on Broadway in 1925 and in London in 1926. It was quickly adapted as a silent film starring Dorothy Gish and Will Rogers. |