The run closed February 25, 1950
- Opened
- January 17, 1950
- Closed
- February 25, 1950
- Performances
- 46
- Previews
- —
- Theatre
- Winter Garden Theatre
Of the 705 productions we hold that opened in the 1950s and record a performance count, this is the 323rd longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.
Who was in it39 named
Jessie Elliott
Marie Groscup
Jay Harnick
Jean Harris
Marc Hertsens
Samuel N Kirkham
Louise Kirtland
Graham Lee
Lenore Lonergan
Eve Lynn
Arthur Maxwell
Jack Miller
Margery Oldroyd
Paul Olson
Jack Russell
Laurel Shelby
Dolores Starr
Ray Stephens
Rex Thompson
Bobby van
Earl William
18 of these 39 names have a person record behind them and link to one. The other 21 are set from the identifier in the cast list, which is a slug of the name — so hyphens and full stops are lost and a few come out wrong. We hold nothing else about them. Nobody here is matched to a character: the cast list records who was in the company and not what they played.
Creative team
- Director
- Robert H. Gordon
- Choreographer
- Jack Cole
- Producer
- William R. Katzell and Ray Golden
A producer is one string on this record, however many people or companies it names. Directors and choreographers are held both as text and as identifiers; where an identifier exists the name links to a page.
Around this production
ALIVE AND KICKING January 17, 1950 Winter Garden Theatre * 46 performances Music and Lyrics mostly by others; Sketches by Joseph Stein & Will Glickman, I. A. L. Diamond, and others; Directed by Robert H. Gordon; Choreographed by Jack Cole; Produced by William R. Katzell and Ray Golden; With Jack Cole, David Burns, Jack Gilford, Carl Reiner, Gwen Verdon, and Jack Cassidy. Show Tunes the Songs Shows and Careers of Broadway S Suskin Steven Suskin Steven, p. 225
- In the fifteen years following the war, some two dozen revues opened on Broadway, most of them failures and most of them lacking a point of view. Many critics noted the revues had a number of composers, lyricists, and sketch writers, and the large number of contributors left the revues unfocused and scattershot. The fi… Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals the Dan Dietz, p. 14
- Three numbers from Pretty Penny were resurrected for Alive and Kicking : the songs “French with Tears” and “Cry, Baby” (aka “Cry, Baby, Cry”) and the sketch “Meet the Authors” Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals the Dan Dietz, p. 16
- Like Alive and Kicking, which opened three days before its premiere, Dance Me a Song was another in a string of now-forgotten revues that were generally dismissed by the critics and public, had relatively short Broadway runs, and left behind not a single cast album. Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals the Dan Dietz, p. 21
- Despite its large cast and lavish production values (and a huge initial investment of $230,000), Bless You All was yet another in the parade of the era’s luckless revues, and like Alive and Kicking , Dance Me a Song , Tickets, Please! , Michael Todd’s Peep Show , and Pardon Our French , it soon disappeared. Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals the Dan Dietz, p. 105
- Alive and Kicking laughed at television and medicine (“Hippocrates Hits the Jackpot”), offered a wry look at writers in “Meet the Authors” (which was added to Bless You All after its opening), and included a song about New York (“Building Going Up”); Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals the Dan Dietz, p. 107
Passages naming this production, found by keyword across 178 books. Where it turns up in the literature, not curated notes about it.
What this page does not know
- No photograph of this staging. 48 of 13,459 productions hold one.
- No character names. We can say who was in the company and not who they played.
- No recording is held for Alive and Kicking at all.
- Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.