On Your Toes

[buddy5]

Did anybody elise see the 1936 oriiginal..with Bolger...His Slaughter on Tenth Avenue was a big game changer..The score was hardly recognized at the time..big cabaret standards slowly evolved including He Was Too Good to Me and Glad T o Be Unhappy.

A great Encore choice!

[newintown]

I'm sure there are one or two octogenarians out there who might have a vague memory of the experience. But maybe not.

[Huss417]

1936-NO 1954-NO 1983-YES.

It was a great show. Look forward to Encores.

[Ed_Mottershead]

My late mother saw it in 1936 and always spoke glowingly of Ray Bolger's performance. She always remembered Bolger having to keep dancing to avoid the gangsters. I'm not too sure many octogenarians out there would have any rememberance of it -- they would have been very young at the time. Maybe some nonogeneraians with good memories though.

[frontrowcentre2]

The score was hardly recognized at the time...

Not quite true.

Both "There's a Small Hotel" and "Glad to be Unhappy" were quickly picked up and recorded by several top bands. And "Slaughter on 10th Avenue" was a popular pops concert piece for the Boston Pops and other such orchestras for years.

The fact that the show opened prior to the making of original cast albums (the London cast did record a few highlights) meant that the score didn't travel much beyond theatre circles - few shows of that era did. The first full recording was released by Columbia Records in 1953, and it is now available from Masterworks Broadway. It's a well-sung though not terribly theatrical recording. But it DID help inspire the 1954 revival, and Decca's album of that production has theatricality to spare. Both were eclipsed by John Yap's recording of the 1983 revival.

"He Was Too Good to Me" was never part of the score of ON YOUR TOES. It was written for SIMPLE SIMON (1930) but cut from the show before opening.

[best12bars]

allofmylife posted some of the best photos I've ever seen here on BWW from the original 1936 production of "On Your Toes."

You can view them by clicking the link.

The 1983 revival, directed by George Abbott and choreographed by George Balanchine was really fantastic. One of the most vivid memories I have of seeing anything on Broadway.



LINK

[Kalimba]

I saw the revival when I was in college. The only number I remember was Bach, Beethoven and Brahms.

[LaurenB]

I loved the 83 revival! I wish there was a video of the dance number where the ballet dancers were pitted against the tap dancers. It was one of the best numbers I have ever seen on stage.

[best12bars]

I agree, LaurenB.

There is a (really crappy) video of that number, which stopped the show when I saw it, on Blue Gobo. It cuts in halfway through Christine Andreas's song.
On Your Toes with dance

[goldenboy]

I saw 1983
Wasn't born yet to see the others.

[LaurenB]

Thanks Besty! It brings back great memories. (Too bad the video doesn't capture the magic that was happening on the stage.)

Yeah, it stopped the show when we saw it too. We had a really good audience - lots of energy, applause, laughter. They even gasped (a good gasp) when Dina Merrill walked on stage, because she was so pretty.

[matineeidol2013]

WOW. That number is ELECTRIC.

[daredevil]

I saw the 1954 production with Zorina and Bobby Van, and, ofcourse, Elaine Stritch playing the wiseacre socialite who is involved with the ballet. Moments are still very vivid in my mind; "It's Got to Be Love"; "The Heart is Quicker than the Eye"; the terrible ballet where everything goes wrong that ends Act I, and ofcourse, the great Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, where the hero has to dance until the gunman, sitting in the box, is arrested. I think the production was directed by George Abbott, and choreographed by Balanchine, as the original was. Nevertheless, it did not run very long.

[jayinchelsea]

The 1954 revival, despite being directed by Abbott, with Zorina once again starring and Balanchine still doing the choreography, was not well received and had a short run (it was recorded, and is still available on CD). And when the revival opened in 1983, starring Makarova, Christine Andreas, Dina Merrill (surprisingly good) and Lara Teeter (who years later did an amazing Buddy at the Barrington Stage FOLLIES, and was still a great dancer), the New York Times panned it, and after reading it, I assumed it too would close. Little did I know that every other critic thought it was great, and it ran for over 500 performances.

Fun show, great Rodgers and Hart score, can't wait to see it at Encores!

[LaurenB]

Gosh, I would have loved to have seen both Ray Bolger and Bobby Van. (I loved Lara Teeter in the role, wish I had seen him in other things.)