Word: ryskind
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...With a book by director George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, music by George Gershwin and lyrics by his brother Ira, Of Thee I Sing opened Dec. 26, 1931, with George conducting the orchestra, and ran for 441 performances. It would be the Gershwin's biggest hit, and the first musical to win a Pulitzer Prize for drama. The award went to Kaufman, Ryskind and Ira Gershwin for supplying the words; George, who supplied the immortal music, was not eligible. (The decision chafed...
...According to Gershwin biographer Edward Jablonski, Kaufman and Ryskind wrote the whole first act in 16 days. Seeing the show today, smiling at some jokes, groaning at others, you may ask, "It took that long?" This was a script built for laughs, not to last. It's less a Petronian satire than a Catskills burlesque, reveling in fake French ("Garcon, s'il vous plait, / Encore, Chevrolet coupe") and real Yiddish, as when French soldiers sing, "A vous toot dir veh, a vous?" and the nine Supreme Court justices declare, "We're the A.K.'s / Who give...