The run closed October 20, 1928
- Opened
- September 25, 1928
- Closed
- October 20, 1928
- Performances
- 31
- Previews
- —
- Theatre
- Brooks Atkinson Theatre
Of the 2,148 productions we hold that opened in the 1920s and record a performance count, this is the 1,242nd longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.
Who was in it50 named
George Ali
Violetta Aoki
Albert Birk
Biddy Boyd
Marshall Bradford
Richardson Brown
Gene Byron
Jean Casewell
James Dale
Robert Davis
Marie Felday
Betty Glass
Ralph Glover
William Griffith
R P Hall
Evelyn Hannons
Pauline Hartman
Catherine Huth
Paul Jensen
Evelyn Kane
Eddie Larkin
George C Lehrian
Jay Lindsey
Alan Lowe
Bob Matthews
Helen Mirtel
Bunny Moore
Anna Mycue
Starke Patterson
Bud Penny
Ruby Poe
Eugenia Renon
Dorothy Roye
Gloria Rymar
Masa Sanami
Ted Schultz
Helen Shepard
Grace Shipp
Betty Shirley
Urlida Smith
Charles Townsend
Velma Valentine
Frank White
Ted White
6 of these 50 names have a person record behind them and link to one. The other 44 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
- Alexander Leftwich
- Choreographer
- Jack Haskell
- Orchestrations
- Roy Webb
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
Chee-Chee is a musical by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart based on the 1927 book, The Son of the Grand Eunuch, by Charles Pettit. Chee-Chee opened on Broadway September 25, 1928, and the show closed after 31 performances. In 1963 vocalist Betty Comden released an album that included some of the songs from the musical.
- Also included were “Are You My Love?” (from Rodgers and Hart’s 1936 film musical Dancing Pirate ) and “I Still Believe in You” (from the team’s 1930 musical Simple Simon ; with a different lyric, the song had also been heard as “Singing a Love Song” in the team’s 1928 musical Chee-Chee ). Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals the Dan Dietz, p. 225
- Fields opened his new theater on October 26, 1928, with Rodgers and Hart’s Present Arms (10/26/28; 147 performances), and followed it with the same team’s Chee-Chee (9/25/28; 32 performances). Broadway Its History People and Places An Encyclopedia Bloom Ken 1949 2nd Ed New, p. 109
- Chee-Chee (9/25/28; 32 performances) was a downright failure for Rodgers, Hart, and the two Fieldses. Broadway Its History People and Places An Encyclopedia Bloom Ken 1949 2nd Ed New, p. 189
- Chee-Chee provided their first opportunity “to put our theories of close unity of song and story into practice.” Chee-Chee received an all-time Rodgers and Hart low of thirty-one performances in 1928. Enchanted Evenings the Broadway Musical From Show Boat Block Geoffrey Oxford New, p. 122
- In the 1936 On Your Toes Rodgers and Hart attempted an integration of music and drama that went beyond their successful innovations in Peggy-Ann and their unsuccessful ones in Chee-Chee. Enchanted Evenings the Broadway Musical From Show Boat Block Geoffrey Oxford New, p. 124
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 character names. We can say who was in the company and not who they played.
- No recording is held for Chee-Chee at all.
- Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.