The run closed July 15, 1939
- Opened
- November 9, 1938
- Closed
- July 15, 1939
- Performances
- 291
- Previews
- —
- Theatre
- Imperial Theatre
Of the 1,388 productions we hold that opened in the 1930s and record a performance count, this is the 51st longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.
Who was in it70 named
April
Walter Armin
Monica Bannister
Vicki Belling
Dorothy Benson
Stanton Bier
Alexis Bolan
Evelyn Bonefine
Chet Bree
Charles Campbell
Dean Carlton
Mildred Chenaval
Don Cortez
Ruth Daye
J Colville Dunn
John Eliot
Michael J Forbes
Hans Hansen
Pearl Harris
Eddie Heisler
Beverly Hosier
Ivan Izmailov
Dorothea Jackson
Thomas Jafollo
Adele Jergens
Ruth Joseph
Joseph Kallini
Evelyn Kelly
Maurice Kelly
June le Roy
Nancy Lee
William Lilling
Walter Long
Peter Lopoukin
Walter Monroe
Evelyn Moser
Walter Munroe
Audrey Palmer
John Panter
Mary Ann Parker
Kay Picture
Barbara Pond
Roy Ross
Jean Scott
Veva Selwood
Jack Seymour
Lawrie Shevlin
Eugene Sigaloff
Zynaid Spencer
Jack Stanton
Frances Tannehill
Marie Vanneman
Marie Vaughan
Matthew Vodnoy
Mildred Fenton
Paul Bartels
Dorothy Compton
Joel Friend
Grace Gillen
11 of these 70 names have a person record behind them and link to one. The other 59 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
- Samuel Spewack
- Choreographer
- Robert Alton
- Producer
- Vinton Freedley
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
Leave It to Me! is a 1938 musical produced by Vinton Freedley with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The book was a collaborative effort by Samuel and Bella Spewack, the former of whom also directed the Broadway production. The musical was based on the play Clear All Wires by the Spewacks, which was performed on Broadway for 93 performances in 1932, and which was filmed in 1933, starring Lee Tracy, Benita Hume, Una Merkel and James Gleason. It was set in Stalinist Russia in the 1930s, with Stalin himself appearing at the end. But its comic treatment of Soviets and Nazis seemed misplaced during the Cold War, and the show was not revived until the late 1980s. Mary Martin made her Broadway debut…
Mary Martin got the Porter treatment, along with William Gaxton, Victor Moore, and Sophie Tucker in Leave It to Me! (11/9/38; 291 performances). Broadway Its History People and Places An Encyclopedia Bloom Ken 1949 2nd Ed New, p. 438
- There have been musicals about the cold war (e.g. Leave It to Me!, Silk Stockings ), but Chess was the first to treat the conflict seriously, using an international chess match as a metaphor. Broadway Musicals Show By Show Seventh Edition Stanley Green Cary Ginell, p. 273
- Victor Moore endeared himself to audiences again by impersonating a United States Senator in Louisiana Purchase, after playing an Ambassador in Leave It to Me! Broadway Musicals Show By Show Green Stanley Green Kay 5th Ed Rev and Updated By, p. 134
- After having collaborated ten years earlier on Leave It to Me!, Cole Porter and the husband-wife team of Samuel and Bella Spewack were reunited for Kiss Me, Kate. Broadway Musicals Show By Show Green Stanley Green Kay 5th Ed Rev and Updated By, p. 165
- There have been musicals about the cold war (e.g., Leave It to Me!, Silk Stockings), but Chess was the first to treat the conflict seriously, using an international chess match as a metaphor. Broadway Musicals Show By Show Green Stanley Green Kay 5th Ed Rev and Updated By, p. 303
- The Imperial’s next musical offering was Cole Porter’s Leave It to Me! (11/9/38; 291 performances). The score contained the usual complement of hit songs, including “Get out of Town,” “Most Gentlemen Don’t Like Love,” and “My Heart Belongs to Daddy.” Broadway Its History People and Places An Encyclopedia Bloom Ken 1949 2nd Ed New, p. 277
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 Leave It to Me! at all.
- Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.