The run closed December 4, 1954
- Opened
- December 2, 1954
- Closed
- December 4, 1954
- Performances
- 4
- Previews
- —
- Theatre
- Mark Hellinger Theatre
Of the 705 productions we hold that opened in the 1950s and record a performance count, this is the 652nd longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.
Who was in it34 named
Peggy Kinard
Michael King
Fred Lightner
Charles G Martin
Dolores Micheline
Rene Miville
Robert Price
Jack Purcell
Michelle Reiner
Martha Rich
Alton Ruff
James Schlader
Buff Shurr
Iris Sinding
Flavine Valentine
Lois van Pelt
Fred Zoeter
17 of these 34 names have a person record behind them and link to one. The other 17 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
- Charles W. Christenberry Jr., Byrle Cass
- Choreographer
- Gene Bayliss
- Producer
- Elizabeth Miele
- Orchestrations
- by
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
Irra Petina Stars in “Hit the Trail”’, New York Times, 2 December 1954, 40. The Letters of Cole Porter Cole Porter Editor Cliff Eisen Editor Dominic Mchugh , p. 674
- Most shows were lighhearted in nature, and it’s notable the critics often used such words as carnival, jubilee, fandango, hoedown, haymaker, and festival to describe not just a particular song or dance sequence but also to characterize their take-away, overall impressions of the musicals they reviewed. But if fun was t… Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals the Dan Dietz, p. 2
- And six book musicals weren’t for the record: it appears that Happy as Larry, The Liar, Jotham Valley, Hit the Trail, Portofino, and Happy Town went commercially unrecorded. Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals the Dan Dietz, p. 5
- The Broadway dancer was seen in a number of the era’s musicals, including the notorious Buttrio Square and Hit the Trail, and in 1968 made his mark as the author of the book Your Own Thing, which won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical of the 1967–1968 season and played for 933 performances. Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals the Dan Dietz, p. 154
- When it comes to the hallowed flops of the 1950s, Buttrio Square is spoken of in the same hushed and solemn tones as Hit the Trail and Portofino. Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals the Dan Dietz, p. 282
- Hit the Trail quickly found its special niche in the history of Broadway musicals because critics and connoisseurs of really bad musicals realized that here was one for the record books. It may not quite have matched the deliriously demented Hairpin Harmony (1943), but it certainly rivaled The Duchess Misbehaves (1946)… Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals the Dan Dietz, p. 430
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 Hit the Trail at all.
- Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.