Sophie, 1963

The run closed April 20, 1963

Opened

April 15, 1963

Closed

April 20, 1963

Performances

8

Previews

—

Theatre

Winter Garden Theatre

Of the 603 productions we hold that opened in the 1960s and record a performance count, this is the 458th longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.

Other stagings of Sophie 2 more that season

Who was in it31 named

Berta Gersten
Patsi King
David Thomas
Jordan Bowers
Carol Carlin
Douglas Clarke
John Drew
Louise Ferrand
Janet Gaylord
Ellen Graff
Tim Harum
Florence Hayle
Richard Hermany
Nat Horne
Diana Hunter
Urylee Leonardos
Ralph Mcwilliams
Michael Nestor
Kelli Scott
Beti Seay
Bella Shalom
Maralyn Thoma
Elizabeth Wullen

8 of these 31 names have a person record behind them and link to one. The other 23 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

Jack Sydow

Orchestrations

Sid Ramin, Arthur Beck

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

TV personality Steve Allen wrote the score for this biographical musical about Sophie Tucker. Despite the compelling subject, the show was not a commercial success.

• The film was never made, but ten years later the Broadway musical Sophie opened (and quickly closed, after eight performances). The lyrics and music were by Steve Allen, and Libi Staiger played the title role. Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals the Dan Dietz, p. 883
• Sophie, Steve Allen’s attempt at an even more Jewish funny girl; Aint Broadway Grand (one of two musicals with Gypsy Rose Lee as a character); and finally Kean, the story of actor Edmund Kean with an underappreciated score. Broadway Musicals the 101 Greatest Shows of All Time Bloom Ken 1949 Vlastnik Fra, p. 113
• Saddler was saddled with more than his share of stinkers (Shangri-La, Sophie, Tricks, Teddy and Alice), and his greatest work was in the revivals of No, No, Nanette and On Your Toes. Broadway Musicals the 101 Greatest Shows of All Time Bloom Ken 1949 Vlastnik Fra, p. 232
• Why was Funny Girl so fine and Sophie so dull? Sophie had little humor and made its heroine quite unlikable. The musical Fanny Brice, ambitious as she was, tried to make her marriage work, and was lovably pushy and sympathetic throughout. Not Since Carrie Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops Ken Mandelbaum, p. 253
• My dog Sophie. She’s a white Maltese. The Playbill Broadway Yearbook June 2007 To May 2008 Viagas Robert 4th Annual Ed, p. 123

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 Sophie at all.
• Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.