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hit song, “ e Way You Look Tonight,” won the
Academy Award for Best Music, Original
Song. Astaire portrays the gambler and dancer
John “Lucky” Garnett, who misses his wedding
to Margaret Watson and promises to make
,
to earn back her hand in marriage. Tak-
ing a train to New York City with his friend, the
magician Edwin “Pop” Cardetti, Lucky encoun-
ters Penny Carroll, a dance instructor played by
Rogers. A er a series of missteps, Lucky and
Penny become dance partners and sweethearts.
Ingmar Bergman’s lm
Smiles of a Summer
Night
served as the inspiration for the musical
A Little Night Music
, one of the most successful
works by
STEPHEN SONDHEIM (b. 1930)
.
A
Little Night Music
( ) represented a new di-
rection for Sondheim: “
Night Music
was a show
that gave me pleasure for di erent reasons than
the other musicals I’ve written. I like writing el-
egant stu sometimes, although I generally like
to write shows that are more openly emotional
because they are more satisfying to me person-
ally. I also don’t think the show was as great a
departure for me as some have said it was. It’s all
of a fabric—just another segment of my work.
It’s in a di erent style, an operetta style.” It was
perhaps the popular Viennese style evoked in
the music and setting of this musical that con-
tributed to its success.
A Little Night Music
also
contained Sondheim’s only song to become a
popular success outside the theater: “Send in the
Clowns.”
Composer, lyricist, and producer
FRANK
LOESSER (1910–69)
de ed the family’s classi-
cal tradition by becoming a pop musician. Af-
ter brief stints as a journalist and club pianist,
Loesser moved to Hollywood as sta composer
for Universal and Paramount. He contributed
lyrics or music to over lms. His musical
e
Most Happy Fella
tells the story of an unlikely
couple. Tony Esposito, an aging vintner in Napa
Valley, invites Rosabella, a young waitress in San
Francisco, to marry him.
ey have never met,
but Tony sent Rosabella a picture, not of himself
but the handsome Joe. Rosabella nds Tony re-
pulsive and gives herself over to Joe on her wed-
ding night. Discovering the a air (and subse-
quent pregnancy), Tony nonetheless decides to
marry Rosabella and raise the child as his own.
Based on a book and lyrics by Loesser,
e Most
Happy Fella
opened at the Imperial
eatre on
May ,
, and ran for
performances.
AR7+UR S&+:AR7= (1900–84)
pursued a
legal career while composing on the side. Lo-
renz Hart, with whom he collaborated on sev-
eral early song ventures, deserves credit for con-
vincing him to abandon law for music. Not long
a er, a friend introduced Schwartz to lyricist
Howard Dietz, a former classmate of Hart and
Oscar Hammerstein II at Columbia University
who initially declined a partnership. Instead,
Dietz became publicity director and later vice
president of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Schwartz
eventually convinced Dietz to become a song-
writing team, one of the most successful of the
’ s and ’ s, whose hits included “A Shine on
Your Shoes.”
is song rst appeared in their
Broadway musical revue
Flying Colors
( )
and reemerged more than two decades later
with expanded lyrics in the lm
e Band Wag-
on
( ), starring Cyd Charisse and Fred As-
taire and directed by Vincente Minnelli. In
,
Kevin Cole expanded on songs by Schwartz
and Dietz to create the musical
A Shine on Your
Shoes
, with a book by Leeds Bird, for a workshop
performance at Ravinia.
Two of the most successful musicals starring
siblings Fred and Adele Astaire—
Lady, Be Good!
(
) and
Funny Face
( )—featured music
by
GEORGE GERSHWIN
.
eir appearance
in
Lady, Be Good!
followed the Astaires’ Broad-
way debut in Jerome Kern’s musical comedy
e
Bunch and Judy
in
. Coincidentally,
Lady,
Be Good!
centers on the cash-strapped broth-
er-and-sister dance team Dick and Susie Trev-
or, who, a er a series of intrigues, marry their
true loves.
is musical also marked the rst
Promotional poster for
Swing Time
Stephen Sondheim
Playbill
cover for
The Most Happy Fella
Cyd Charisse and Fred Astaire in
The Band Wagon
Adele and Fred Astaire (1921)
Promotional poster for
Lady, Be Good!
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