Notable Opening Nights Recap, Part I, and Your Own Thursday Headlines

 

Courtesy Patrick Oliver Jones.

It's a pity they couldn't have found a way to work the old Helen Hayes Theatre, or at least its facade, into the Marriott Marquis property. Anyway, I'm playing catchup with the Notable Opening Nights I missed two weeks ago. No longform essay today, just capsule snarking. More recaps are coming soon!

Notable Sept. 18 debuts include:
Disraeli, which premiered in 1911 at Wallack's Theatre. Recent British history came to Broadway with Louis N. Parker's play. It was popular enough to include two performances benefitting the St. Mary's Free Hospital for Children, with an all-child cast. The regular production starred George Arliss, who went on to win the third Academy Award for Best Actor when Disraeli came to the screen in 1929. Arliss was known as an actor, but he also wrote two Broadway plays. He starred in the second one, 1917's Hamilton, as you know who.

Dearest Enemy, which premiered in 1925 at the Knickerbocker. Rodgers & Hart teamed up for a musical about Mary Lindley Murray (Flavia Arcaro), who played hostess for Britain's General Sir William Howe (Harold Crane) and his troops so that George Washington (H.E. Eldridge) and his men could have a safe reunion and work out new strategies. The score includes one standard, "Here in My Arms."

Courtesy YouTube.

Countess Maritza, which opened in 1926 at the Shubert. This was the American premiere of Emmerich Kálmán's operetta. The widowed countess claims she's getting remarried so she can have some peace and quiet. Unfortunately, it turns out that she used a real name for her phony husband-to-be, and the real deal shows up. The man in question falls for a young woman whose brother, a down-and-out count, works for the countess. Naturally, the countess falls for the count.

Courtesy YouTube.

Strictly Dishonorable, which opened in 1929 at the now-demolished Avon Theatre, which was on land where The Torch is being constructed. Preston Sturges' lone Broadway hit (it ran until January 1931) was this comedy about an opera star (Tullio Carminati) who falls for a sweet Southern belle (Muriel Kirkland).

Johnny Belinda, which opened in 1940 at the Belasco and closed the following June at the Longacre. Helen Craig starred as Belinda, whose problems include being a deaf-mute (but she learns sign language), getting raped and pregnant from it (but she keeps her son, Johnny), and going on trial for the murder of her son's father (but it's ultimately considered self-defense). Written by Elmer Harris and adapted into Jane Wyman's Oscar-winning film.

Courtesy YouTube.

Song and Dance, which opened at what is now the Bernard B. Jacobs in 1985. Bernadette Peters won her first Tony for this Andrew Lloyd Webber-Don Black musical which previously ran in London. The first act started life as Tell Me on a Sunday. It's the story of a young Englishwoman trying her luck at love in New York and Beverly Hills. The second act is a ballet to Sir Andrew's Variations, telling the story of the guy our heroine ends up with. It's telling that Song and Dance won only one Tony. To be fair, 1985-86 was the year of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which nabbed five of them.