The run closed June 12, 1965
- Opened
- December 12, 1964
- Closed
- June 12, 1965
- Performances
- 199
- Previews
- —
- Theatre
- Al Hirschfeld Theatre
Of the 603 productions we hold that opened in the 1960s and record a performance count, this is the 120th longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.
Who was in it45 named
Morocco
Al Nesor
Conrad Yama
Doria Avila
Miriamne Burton
Jacqueline Carol
Jacque Dean
Eugene Edwards
Mary Ehara
Marilyn Feder
Ray Gilbert
Murray Goldkind
Sheldon Golomb
Edward J Heim
Gary Hubler
Scott Hunter
Nathaniel Jones
Gina Kaye
Sandra Lein
Shirley Leinwand
Nancy Lynch
Patti Mariano
Lispet Nelson
Alice Shanahan
John Sharpe
June Eve Story
Herb Surface
Patti Ann Watson
John Wheeler
Paul Berne
Trudy Carson
Danny Dayton
Curtis Hood
Lawrence Keith
Janet Moody Morris
10 of these 45 names have a person record behind them and link to one. The other 35 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
- Lloyd Richards
- Choreographer
- Onna White
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
Memorable Opening Night Note: From David Hyde Pierce. He wrote a note: “GO OUT THERE AND MAKE THEM WISH THEY WERE DEAD.” I thought that was spectacular. The Playbill Broadway Yearbook June 2012 To May 2013 Robert Viagas 9th Annual Ed, p. 218
- The 1964 Broadway musical I Had a Ball was set at Coney Island, and lost money after a run of only 199 performances; the 1972 Off-Broadway musical God Bless Coney wasn’t blessed and floundered after three performances; and Love Never Dies, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, was a disappointment a… Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals the Dan Dietz, p. 376
- Some highlights that originated at the Beck during this decade included Jerry Herman's Milk and Honey (1961), about the new Israel; Anne Bancroft, Barbara Harris, Gene Wilder, and Zohra Lampert in a revival of Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children (1963), staged by Jerome Robbins; Colleen Dewhurst and Michael Dunn i… At This Theatre 100 Years of Broadway Shows Stories and Botto Louis Viagas Rober, p. 193
- The 1964 musicals continuing into the new year consisted of Dolly!, Funny Girl, and—from the fall season—Fiddler, as well as ultimate failures Oh, What a Lovely War, Golden Boy, Ben Franklin in Paris, Bajour, and I Had a Ball. More Opening Nights On Broadway A Critical Quotebook of Compiled By Steven Suski, p. 39
- His experience with Raisin’s fine actors (Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee, Diana Sands) made him the logical (?) choice to helm the 1964 Buddy Hackett laff-fest I Had a Ball, from which he was rolled early on. More Opening Nights On Broadway A Critical Quotebook of Compiled By Steven Suski, p. 1012
- At age nineteen, future superstar Barbra Streisand made her debut on Broadway and took the show’s only Tony nomination. The Golden Age of American Musical Theatre 1943 1965 Naden Corinne J Rowman Litt, p. 101
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 I Had a Ball at all.
- Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.