The run closed June 6, 1931
- Opened
- October 14, 1930
- Closed
- June 6, 1931
- Performances
- 272
- Previews
- —
- Theatre
- Neil Simon Theatre
Of the 1,388 productions we hold that opened in the 1930s and record a performance count, this is the 61st longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.
Who was in it71 named
Jack Barrett
Gloria Beaumont
Gene Brady
Olive Brady
Bob Burton
Norma Butler
Lillian Carson
Kathryn Cathcart
Chief Rivers
Jack Classon
Jack Closson
Arthur Craig
Norman Curtis
Bob Derden
Kay Downer
Lavern Evans
Jack Fago
Jacqueline Feeley
Mickie Forbs
Donald Foster
Bob Gebhardt
Dorothy Gordon
Faye Greene
Harry Griffin
Marion Harcke
Thomasine Haye
Eunice Healy
Ray Johnson
Starr West Jones
Virginia Kay
Vivian Keefer
Muriel Lacount
Rena Landeau
Jane Lane
Leila Laney
Lillian Lorray
Gertrude Lowe
Carlton Macy
Mary Mascher
Betty Morton
Elsie Neal
Dick Nealy
Hazzard Newberry
Kendall Northrop
James Notono
Peggy O Connor
Margie O Shea
Lillian Ostrom
Julia Pirie
Del Porter
Vivian Porter
Marvyne Ray
Kathy Schauer
John Sciortino
Marshall Smith
Dwight Snyder
Drucilla Strain
Ruth Timmons
Clyde Veaux
Nondas Wayne
John Daley
10 of these 71 names have a person record behind them and link to one. The other 61 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
- George Hale
- Producer
- Alex A. Aarons & Vinton Freedley
- Orchestrations
- Robert Russell Bennett
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
Ethel Merman held a high C for sixteen bars during "I Got Rhythm" on opening night, and a star was born. She was a complete unknown before that moment.
Gershwin explained it, “Although this young woman was appearing for the first time on any stage, her assurance, timing, and delivery both as a comedienne and singer—with a no-nonsense voice that could reach not only standees but ticket takers in the lobby ... convinced the opening-night audience that it was witnessing the discovery of a new star.” Broadway Musicals the 101 Greatest Shows of All Time Bloom Ken 1949 Vlastnik Fra, p. 139
Ginger Rogers’s first Broadway musical since GIRL CRAZY [Gershwin: October 14, 1930] was not to be; it closed under a pink cloud of unpaid bills.
Speaker not recorded. Show Tunes the Songs Shows and Careers of Broadway S Suskin Steven Suskin Steven, p. 196- “I Got Rhythm” (1930 musical Girl Crazy ; music by George Gershwin) Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals the Dan Dietz, p. 705
- After the stock market crash, Broadway business went south, but still the team struck gold with Girl Crazy in 1930. Broadway Musicals the 101 Greatest Shows of All Time Bloom Ken 1949 Vlastnik Fra, p. 126
- At least the 1943 Girl Crazy, also starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, had the sense to retain six of the 1930 original’s fourteen songs, plus the Gershwin hit originally composed in 1924 for Fred Astaire in Lady, Be Good!, “Fascinating Rhythm.” Enchanted Evenings the Broadway Musical From Show Boat Block Geoffrey Oxford New, p. 239
- In my second year at The Thacher School I anticipated Crazy for You, the 1992 musical based on Girl Crazy, with my own assemblage of freely interpolated Gershwin songs mixed with songs from the “dated” 1930 show—a triumph of accessibility ov Enchanted Evenings the Broadway Musical From Show Boat Block Geoffrey Oxford Uni, p. 5
- 14 October: Girl Crazy, featuring the debut of Ethel Merman and a score by George and Ira Gershwin (including “I Got Rhythm” and “Embraceable You”), premieres at the Alvin Theater. Historical Dictionary of the Broadway Musical Volume 22 William A Everett Paul R, p. 20
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 Girl Crazy at all.
- Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.