The run closed June 17, 1956
- Opened
- December 2, 1943
- Closed
- June 17, 1956
- Performances
- 502
- Previews
- —
- Theatre
- Broadway Theatre
Of the 890 productions we hold that opened in the 1940s and record a performance count, this is the 48th longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.
Other stagings of Carmen Jones 3 more that season
| 1945 | City Center Revival · Hassard Short | 21 perf. |
| 1946 | City Center Revival · Hassard Short | 32 perf. |
| 1992 | Transfer Transfer |
Who was in it109 named
Lee Allen
Viola Anderson
William Archer
Albert Bailey
Robert Bailey
Valerie Black
Al Bledger
Willie May Bourne
Raymond Brooks
Carmine Brown
Oliver Busch
Howard Carter
Edward Christopher
Ruth Crumpton
William Davis
Richard Devaultier
Hubert Dilworth
Edwina Divers
Anne Dixon
George Dosher
E Drayton
L Drayton
Marguerite Duncan
Melvin Duncan
Tony Fleming Jr
Posie Flowers
Carlota Franzell
Awilda Frasier
Mary Graham
Richard Granady
J Prioreau Gray
Frank Green
Joe Green
Oliver Hamilton
Erona Harris
Mabel Hart
Elijah Hodges
James Holman
Sheldon B Hoskins
Melvin Howard
Gilbert Irvis
Richard James
Rhoda Johnson
Clarence Jones
William Jones
Elsie Kennedy
David Lee
Urylee Leonardos
Daniel Lloyd
Fredye Marshall
Maithe Marshall
Dorothy Mcnichols
Vera Mcnichols
Theresa Merritte
Dick Montgomery
Vivienne Mussenden
Frank Neal
Betty Nichols
Joseph A Noble
Bill O Neil
Alford Pierre
Evelyn Pilcher
Bertha Powell
Muriel Rahn
Arthur Rames
Fred Randall
Napoleon Reed
Chauncey Reynolds
John Richards
J Flashe Riley
Edward Roche
Carmencita Romero
Edith Ross
Jessica Russell
Mildred Saffold
Randolph Sawyer
James Scott
Randolph Scott
P Jay Sidney
Robert Smith
Randall Steplight
Andrew Taylor
Harold Taylor
Edward Lee Tyler
Carlos van Putten
Audrey Vanterpool
Delano Vanterpool
Elton J Warren
Mattie Washington
Leroy Westfall
Ethel White
Dorothy Williams
George Willis
Robert Woodland
William Woolfolk
14 of these 109 names have a person record behind them and link to one. The other 95 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
- Hassard Short, Charles Friedman
- Choreographer
- Eugene Loring
- Producer
- Billy Rose
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
For the leading role of Carmen, Muriel Smith and Muriel Rahn alternated performances, as did Luther Saxon and Napoleon Reed for Joe (Smith and Saxon performed on opening night). Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals the Dan Dietz, p. 544
- Carmen Jones returned twice to New York during its year-and-a-half nationwide tour. Broadway Musicals Show By Show Seventh Edition Stanley Green Cary Ginell, p. 122
- Rahn created the title role in Oscar Hammerstein II’s Carmen Jones, his updated adaptation of Bizet’s opera Carmen. Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals the Dan Dietz, p. 234
- Oscar Hammerstein II’s adaptation of Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen was a surprise hit in 1943. Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals the Dan Dietz, p. 287
- Billy Rose brought his production of Carmen Jones to this theatre and the critics flipped. Oscar Hammerstein II, who was back on top with Oklahoma!, conceived the offbeat notion of doing an all-black Carmen set in a parachute factory in America's South during World War II. The experiment worked and the jazz opera ran f… At This Theatre 100 Years of Broadway Shows Stories and Botto Louis Viagas Rober, p. 208
- Musical revivals included The King and I, Carmen Jones, and 300 At This Theatre 100 Years of Broadway Shows Stories and Botto Louis Viagas Rober, p. 318
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 Carmen Jones at all.
- Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.