The run closed July 1, 1933
- Opened
- November 26, 1932
- Closed
- July 1, 1933
- Performances
- 243
- Previews
- —
- Theatre
- Apollo Theatre
Of the 1,388 productions we hold that opened in the 1930s and record a performance count, this is the 80th longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.
This is a New York theatre. The address is Manhattan and the former names are Broadway names, but the record is filed as West End and its coordinates, architect and history were taken from the London theatre of the same name. Every one of these names exists on both streets. Reported to broadway-data as issue #97.
Who was in it64 named
James Ardell
Jack Armstrong
Lee Beggs
Gerry Billings
Chet Bree
Lucille Brodin
Flo Brooks
Andrew Carr
Louise Carr
Jean Carson
Edward Delridge
Marian Dixon
Al Downing
Josephine Dunn
Neil Evans
Helen Fairweather
Emily Fitzpatrick
John Fleming
Arline Garfield
Frances Gordon
John Grant
Ethel Green
Marion Herson
Sara Jane
Julie Jenner
Dorothy Kal
Budd Kehlner
Gloria Kelly
Henry King
Paula King
Tommy Ladd
Jane Lane
Evelyn Laurie
Clark Leston
Florence Mallee
Frances Mchugh
Anna Marie Mckenney
Dorothy Morgan
George Pauncefort
Paul Pegue
Julia Pirie
Blanche Poston
Adelaide Raleigh
Louise Seidel
William Stamm
Mildred Webb
Douglas Wood
Royal Beal
Dorris Groday
Harry Peterson
Evangeline Raleigh
Edward Shane
12 of these 64 names have a person record behind them and link to one. The other 52 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
- Edgar MacGregor
- Choreographer
- Bobby Connolly
- Producer
- Laurence Schwab & B. G. DeSylva
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
“Eadie” was a last-minute addition to the score and on opening night ran away with the whole production. Here was an instance of a show being made by one song—with Ethel Merman singing it, of course. Revue A Nostalgic Reprise of the Great Broadway Period Baral Robert Author 1st E, p. 200
- The first Gems of the Town premiered with the film Take a Chance. Broadway Its History People and Places An Encyclopedia Bloom Ken 1949 2nd Ed New, p. 541
- Youmans’s last Broadway show was Take a Chance (11/26/32: 243 performances). He was asked to come in to bolster the score by Richard Whiting. Nacio Herb Brown, and B. G. De Sylva. Broadway Its History People and Places An Encyclopedia Bloom Ken 1949 2nd Ed New, p. 598
- TAKE A CHANCE was transformed into a fair-sized hit, though Youmans’s contributions (except the revivalist Rise “n Shine) were overshadowed by HUMPTY DUMPTY leftover Eadie Was a Lady. Show Tunes the Songs Shows and Careers of Broadway S Suskin Steven Suskin Steven, p. 112
- Note that the music for “The Bowery” (aka “Blue Bowery”) was heard as “My Lover” (with a new lyric by B. G. “Buddy” DeSylva) for Take a Chance, where it was performed during the tryout before being cut prior to New York (“My Lover” is available on at least three collections of Youmans’s music; The Complete Book of 1930s Broadway Musicals Dietz Dan Rowman Littlefield Publis, p. 103
- As Humpty Dumpty, Take a Chance underwent a tumultuous tryout and was all but written off as one of the season’s first failures. But rewriting, recasting, and the last-minute addition of Vincent Youmans to the creative team resulted in a hit that became the season’s third-longest-running musical. The Complete Book of 1930s Broadway Musicals Dietz Dan Rowman Littlefield Publis, p. 252
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 Take A Chance at all.
- Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.