The Girl Friend

The Girl Friend
Sheet Music
Music	Richard Rodgers
Lyrics	Lorenz Hart
Book	Herbert Fields
Productions	1926 Broadway

The Girl Friend is a musical comedy with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart and book by Herbert Fields. This was the longest running show to date for the trio.^[1]

Production

The Girl Friend opened on Broadway at the Vanderbilt Theatre on March 17, 1926 and closed on December 27, 1926 after 301 performances. Produced by Lew Fields (Herbert's father), staged by John Harwood with musical staging by Jack Haskell, the cast starred Sammy White, Eva Puck and June Cochrane. White and Puck were married and well-known vaudeville performers of the time.

Plot

A cyclist trains on a wheel connected to a butter churn on his dairy farm. He is in love with the daughter of a professional cyclist. He is urged to enter a six-day race by questionable cycling promoter. Various gamblers try to cause him to lose, but he wins the race and the girl.

Songs

Act 1

"Hey! Hey!"
"The Simple Life"
"The Girl Friend"
"Goodbye, Lenny"
"Blue Room"
"Cabarets"
"Why Do I?"
"The Damsel Who Done All the Dirt"
"He's a Winner"
"Town Hall Tonight"
"Good Fellow, Mine"

Act 2

"Creole Cooning Song"
"I'd Like to Take You Home"
"What Is It?"

Critical response

Reviewers praised the humor, dancing, and the "captivating music." The New York American reviewer wrote: "This WAS music, instead of molasses. There was a ditty called 'The Blue Room' which should be sung to exhaustion".^[1]

References

1 2 Secrest, Meryle. Somewhere for me:a biography of Richard Rodgers (2002), Hal Leonard Corporation, ISBN 1-55783-581-0, p. 78

External links

Rodgers and Hart

Musicals	The Garrick Gaieties Dearest Enemy The Girl Friend Peggy-Ann A Connecticut Yankee Present Arms Ever Green Simple Simon America's Sweetheart Jumbo On Your Toes Babes in Arms I'd Rather Be Right The Boys from Syracuse I Married an Angel Too Many Girls Higher and Higher Pal Joey By Jupiter

Songs	"Manhattan" "Mountain Greenery" "Here in My Arms" "Blue Room" "My Heart Stood Still" "Thou Swell" "To Keep My Love Alive" "You Took Advantage of Me" "With a Song in My Heart" "A Ship Without a Sail" "Dancing on the Ceiling" "Ten Cents a Dance" "He Was Too Good to Me" "I've Got Five Dollars" "Isn't It Romantic?" "Lover" "Mimi" "Blue Moon" "It's Easy to Remember (And So Hard to Forget)" "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" "My Romance" "Little Girl Blue" "There's a Small Hotel" "Glad to Be Unhappy" "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" "Where or When" "I Wish I Were in Love Again" "My Funny Valentine" "Johnny One Note" "The Lady Is a Tramp" "Have You Met Miss Jones?" "I'll Tell the Man in the Street" "Spring Is Here" "Falling in Love with Love" "This Can't Be Love" "Sing for Your Supper" "I Like to Recognize the Tune" "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" "Give It Back to the Indians" "You're Nearer" "It Never Entered My Mind" "I Could Write a Book" "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" "Ev'rything I've Got" "Wait till You See Her"

Herbert Fields

Books	Dearest Enemy (1925) The Girl Friend (1926) Peggy-Ann (1926) Hit the Deck (1927) A Connecticut Yankee (1927) Present Arms (1928) Fifty Million Frenchmen (1929) The New Yorkers (1930) America's Sweetheart (1931) Pardon My English (1933) Du Barry Was a Lady (1939) Panama Hattie (1940) Let's Face It! (1941) Something for the Boys (1943, also directed) Mexican Hayride (1944) Up in Central Park (1945, written by) Annie Get Your Gun (1946) Arms and the Girl (1950) By the Beautiful Sea (1954)

Family	Lew Fields (father) Dorothy Fields (sister) Joseph Fields (brother)

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