Productions1 on Broadway
| 1931 | Manhattan Theatre Original. September 8, 1931 · Oscar Hammerstein II | 15 performances |
Every Broadway staging held in broadway-data, sourced to IBDB. West End runs are not yet held.
Recordings 1 album held
Licensing not confirmed
| Rights | — We have not been able to confirm the publisher. |
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 literature7 passages
Hammerstein had a string of failures, including The Gang’s All Here (2/18/31), Free for All (9/8/31), and East Wind (10/27/31). None played more than 23 performances. book:broadway-its-history-people-and-places-an-encyclopedia-bloom-ken-1949-2nd-ed-new#p234
Free for All kidded socialism, Mother wholeheartedly embraced it, and by evening’s end, the title character is swept up in political fervor as she raises high the Red flag and is determined to foment revolution. book:the-complete-book-of-1930s-broadway-musicals-dietz-dan-rowman-littlefield-publis#p13
Other politically driven shows that opened during the decade include Free for All (socialism on the campus); Face the Music (a satire of Depression life); Saluta (which included a song-and-dance-man Mussolini, here named “The Dictator”); Parade (a left-wing revue); Mother (a pro-left diatribe); Johnny Johnson (an anti-… book:the-complete-book-of-1930s-broadway-musicals-dietz-dan-rowman-littlefield-publis#p22
Free for All may well be the most obscure of all Hammerstein’s musicals, and some lyrics are lost, unavailable, or otherwise incomplete. book:the-complete-book-of-1930s-broadway-musicals-dietz-dan-rowman-littlefield-publis#p163
Free For All (with Richard A. Whiting) after a dismal fifteen. book:cambridge-companion-to-the-musical-cambridge-companions-to-music-the-the-cambrid#p192
The collaboration between Richard Whiting and Oscar Hammerstein on the book show Free for All (1931) is a case in point. book:dominic-mchugh-the-oxford-handbook-of-musical-theatre-screen-adaptations-2019-ox#p895
Passages naming this show, found by keyword across 178 books. Where this show turns up in the literature, not curated trivia about it.