The run closed June 18, 1960
- Opened
- April 23, 1959
- Closed
- June 18, 1960
- Performances
- 473
- Previews
- —
- Theatre
- Imperial Theatre
Of the 705 productions we hold that opened in the 1950s and record a performance count, this is the 58th longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.
Who was in it61 named
Jack Beaber
Joan Broderick
Shelly Chaplan
Mel Davidson
Lanier Davis
Lillian D Honau
Ralph Farnworth
Maria Graziano
Maureen Hopkins
Bettye Jenkins
Jillana
Betty Kent
Al Lanti
David London
Ken Malone
Ray Mason
Shelia Mathews
Don Mchenry
Andrina Miller
May Muth
Shirley Nelson
Oran Osburn
Frank Pietri
John Ray
Adriane Rogers
Larry Roquemore
Reiko Sato
Sharon Shore
Carol Stevens
Merritt Thompson
Nolan van Way
Carol Warner
Elizabeth Watts
Joe Blatt
John Conant
Jeff Duncan
Evelyn Joyce
Diane Kim
Herb Mazzini
Robert Mcclure
Sally Mortimer
Peter Saul
Anthony Saverino
Jack Sevier
17 of these 61 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.
Characters11 roles recorded
Dolores Gray Frenchy
Andy Griffith Destry
Scott Brady Kent
Jack Prince Wash Dimsdale
Libi Staiger Chloe
Elizabeth Watts Rose Lovejoy
Marc Breaux Gyp Watson
Swen Swenson Bugs Watson
George Reeder Rockwell
Don McHenry Mayor Slade
Rosetta LeNoire Clara
Only 512 of 13,459 productions carry role names, and these came out of a wiki table — the names arrived with the table's own cell markup on them and have been stripped back. They are not linked to person records because the identifiers in that table do not resolve to ours.
Creative team
- Director
- Michael Kidd
- Choreographer
- Michael Kidd
- Producer
- David Merrick
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.
Tony Awards 0 from 1 nomination
| Best Musical | Nominated |
Around this production
Robert Coleman in the Daily Mirror said the evening was a “musical whirlwind” and a “rip-roaring rouser” (he reported that in order to establish the evening’s mood, before the show on the sidewalk outside the Imperial Theatre there were a number of cowboys straddled atop prancing horses). The Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals Dan Dietz Hardcover 2014 Rowman Lit, p. 791
- Destry rides Again. An embarrassing moment when Destry accidentally tears off part of Frenchy’s dress. Broadway Musicals Show By Show Seventh Edition Stanley Green Cary Ginell, p. 175
- A revival of the musical at the Donmar Warehouse Theatre in London on September 30, 1982, was recorded by That’s Entertainment (LP # TER-1034); Jill Gascoine and Alfred Molina were the leads. Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals the Dan Dietz, p. 787
- Dolores Gray and Andy Griffith had a hit in Destry Rides Again (1959), a musical version of the James Stewart/Marlene Dietrich film, aided by dazzling Michael Kidd choreography, although a feud between Ms. Gray and Mr. Kidd made all the newspapers. At This Theatre 100 Years of Broadway Shows Stories and Botto Louis Viagas Rober, p. 180
- Harold Rome had another hit at the Imperial with Destry Rides Again (4/23/59; 472 performances), starring Andy Griffith and Dolores Gray. Everyone thought a western musical would not be a hit on sophisticated Broadway, but Rome and librettist Leonard Gershe proved them wrong with this David Merrick production. Broadway Its History People and Places An Encyclopedia Bloom Ken 1949 2nd Ed New, p. 279
- His shows exhibited an unusual diversity in subject matter—from the Old West of Destry Rides Again to the New York garment district of J Can Get it for You Wholesale to the Old South of Gone with the Wind. Broadway Its History People and Places An Encyclopedia Bloom Ken 1949 2nd Ed New, p. 477
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 recording is held for Destry Rides Again at all.
- Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.