Word: ellington
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Beggar's Holiday (book & lyrics by John Latouche; music by Duke Ellington; produced by Perry Watkins & John R. Sheppard Jr.) is "based on" John Gay's renowned and raffish 18th Century Beggar's Opera. The debt to Gay is not large. Beggar's Holiday has a present-day setting, a new book, new lyrics and new music. What it has kept is the general movement of the story, the principal low-life characters (one or two in name only) and the cheeky last-minute happy ending...
Even in pure musicomedy terms, Beggar's Holiday has as many ups & downs as an elevator. But when it forgets that John Gay ever lived, and the mixed white and Negro cast sings and stomps to Duke Ellington's rhythmic tunes, Beggar's Holiday has real high spirits and character...
...just one year after it won the 1945 band-of-the-year poll by the jazz magazine Metronome. Last week Metronome counted up its 1946 votes and awarded its prize to a band still new to the big time: Stan Kenton's. He finished far ahead of Duke Ellington...
...seen virtually every major dramatist represented by a work in production or in preparation, witnessed the arrival of a fine new musical comedy at the Opera House last week. Recent musical comedy productions have, without exception, suffered by comparison with the unforgettable "Oklahoma!", and "Twilight Alley," the new Duke Ellington-John Latonche play, provides no variation from the general rule. 'In contrast to the many anemic and warstarved musicals which have cluttered up the glitterdust circuit in recent years, however, it is a lusty, healthy show, brilliantly staged, with an excellent score and fine, if uneven, east...
...pleasing are the splendid sets designed by Oliver Smith, the handsome interior of Miss Jenny's and the gaily colorful hobo-jungle especially adding to the beauty of the performance. The Duke Ellington music (book and lyrics are by John Latouche) is almost as rewarding with a score of pleasing melodies. Among the better tunes are "Take Love Easy," "When I Walk With You," "Tomorrow Mountain," "Tooth and Claw," and "Girls Want A Hero." Latouche's lyrics are particularly amusing in "Ore From A gold Mine" and "I Want To Be Bad." The east gives a performance of mixed quality...