Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Street and Make Your Own Thursday Headlines

 

Courtesy Wikipedia.

This week's Notable Opening Night is Sept. 4, 1935, when Moon Over Mulberry Street opened at the Lyceum.

Playwright Nicholas Cosentino has only one Broadway credit, for Moon Over Mulberry Street. He might have had more chances if his show didn't end up offending 1,200 Italians, who protested to New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia. They claimed the show "held their race up to contempt and ridicule." In his New York Times review, Brooks Atkinson said the "volatile folks on Mulberry Street (are laden) with bottles of wine and broods of babies ... very much engrossed in neighborhood revelries." Mulberry Street's apparently no place for a WASP. Cosentino wrote about the ill-fated romance between a Park Avenue girl (Gladys Shelley) and a janitor's handsome son (Cornel Wilde). Moon Over Mulberry Street didn't last long at the Lycum. It moved to what is now the Lena Horne Theatre and then finally to the now-demolished 44th Street Theatre. It was at the 44th in January 1936 that Moon Over Mulberry Street closed. This was soon reversed, with the show reopening and hanging on until Memorial Day weekend. Mulberry Street's last moment in the spotlight came in 1951, as a Kraft Television Theatre production.

Also opening on this date:

Adonis, which opened in 1884 at the now-demolished Bijou. Broadway's first show to have more than 500 performances, Adonis starred 25-year-old Henry E. Dixey as a hunky statue who comes to life, then realizes that he'd rather not be a human. I'll bet that with a new original score, book doctoring, a first class director and/or choreographer (Sam Pinkleton? Casey Nicholaw? Jerry Mitchell?), and, of course, one hell of a leading man, a revival could beat the original's 603 performances.

A Trip to Japan, which opened in 1909 at the now-demolished Hippodrome Theatre. Composer-lyricist Manuel Klein and bookwriter-producer R.H. Burnside teamed up for this musical with songs like "Meet Me Where the Lanterns Glow," "Every Girl Loves a Uniform," and "Fair Flower of Japan." It ran just shy of a year.

The Fortune Hunter, which also opened in 1909, this time at the now-demolished Gaiety Theatre. Written and directed by Winchell Smith in his second time wearing both hats, The Fortune Hunter starred John Barrymore as a business washout who considers marrying for money. A comedy, it also ran for nearly a year.

Sally, Irene and Mary, which opened in 1922 at the (say it with me, folks!) now-demolished Casino Theatre. Jean Brown, Kitty Flynn, and Edna Morn starred in this musical about three Lower East Side girls who become Broadway chorines. One's worldly, one's dreamy, and one's naive. A musical that closed in June 1923, this became a film featuring Constance Bennett (as Sally) and Joan Crawford (as Irene).

Jerome Robbins' Ballet: U.S.A., or The Perils of Everybody, which opened in 1958 at what is now the Neil Simon Theatre. In between West Side Story and Gypsy, Robbins choreographed four pieces: "The Concert," "Afternoon of a Faun," "3 x 3," and "New York Export: Opus Jazz."

Courtesy YouTube.

Next week, we'll have some law and order.