Theatre Register
Du Barry Was a Lady

Du Barry Was a Lady

Shows · Du Barry Was a Lady

Louis Blore, a washroom attendant at a swanky New York nightclub, is hopelessly in love with the club's star singer, May Daly. After winning the Irish Sweepstakes, Louis slips what he thinks is a Mickey Finn to his romantic rival but accidentally drinks it himself. He dreams he is King Louis XV at the court of Versailles, with May as his mistress Madame Du Barry, and the other nightclub characters as courtiers, but e…

Opened
1939
Performances
408
Type
Musical
Era
Early
Music: Cole PorterLyrics: Cole PorterBook: Herbert Fields, B.G. DeSylva

Productions4 on Broadway

1939 46th Street Theatre Original. December 6, 1939 · Edgar MacGregor 408 performances
1942 Transfer Theatre not recorded.
1993 Transfer Theatre not recorded.
2002 Her Majesty's Theatre Transfer.

Every Broadway staging held in broadway-data, sourced to IBDB. West End runs are not yet held.

Licensing 2 entries

US Concord Theatricals Tams-Witmark available
UK Concord Theatricals Tams-Witmark available

Read from the licensor's own pages and catalogues. Rights move, and an empty row means we have not confirmed a publisher, not that the show cannot be licensed.

In the literature13 passages

The show was Du Barry Was a Lady (12/6/39; 408 performances), and Herbert collaborated with producer B. G. De Sylva on the hilarious book. book:broadway-its-history-people-and-places-an-encyclopedia-bloom-ken-1949-2nd-ed-new#p189

_Du Barry Was a Lady (12/6/39; 408 performances) was the singer’s next Broadway outing. Cole Porter supplied the lively score, and La Merm, as she was dubbed, was ably supported by co-stars Bert Lahr and the young Betty Grable. book:broadway-its-history-people-and-places-an-encyclopedia-bloom-ken-1949-2nd-ed-new#p368

CoLe Porter returned to the 46th Street Theatre with a zany show, Du Barry Was a Lady (12/6/39; 408 performances). Du Barry, the story of a washroom attendant who falls asleep on the job and dreams he is Louis XV, starred Bert Lahr and ErHEL MERMAN and featured Betty Grable, Benny Baker, Ronald Graham, Adele Jergens, a… book:broadway-its-history-people-and-places-an-encyclopedia-bloom-ken-1949-2nd-ed-new#p454

Du Barry Was a Lady (1939). and Foxy (1964), you might chuckle once or twice. but in reality they were funny for the same reason that Sugar was—they were excellent vehicles for Bobby Clark, Eddie Cantor, and Bert Lahr, brilliant clowns all. book:broadway-musicals-the-101-greatest-shows-of-all-time-bloom-ken-1949-vlastnik-fra#p201

Friendship Cole Porter Cole Porter Du Barry Was a Lady 1939 book:encyclopedia-of-theatre-music-a-comprehensive-listing-of-lewine-richard-simon-al#p54

Lyric discontent prompted Lahr to rewrite several of Cole Porter's lines for "It Ain't Etiquette" in Du Barry Was a Lady (1939). book:showtime-a-history-of-the-broadway-musical-theatre-larry-stempel#p250

Passages naming this show, found by keyword across 178 books. Where this show turns up in the literature, not curated trivia about it.

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