Theatre Register
Higher and Higher: Original Music From the Motion Picture Wet Hot American Summer

Higher and Higher

Shows · Higher and Higher

A group of servants in a bankrupt household hatch a scheme to save their jobs by passing off one of their own — a beautiful maid — as a debutante, hoping she will marry a wealthy man and restore the household's fortunes. Their elaborate deception leads to a series of farcical complications involving romantic mix-ups, a trained seal, and high-society impostures that threaten to expose the whole charade.

Opened
1940
Performances
84
Type
Musical
Era
Early
Music: Richard RodgersLyrics: Lorenz HartBook: Gladys Hurlbut, Joshua Logan

Productions1 on Broadway

1940 Shubert Theatre Original. April 4, 1940 · Joshua Logan 84 performances

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

Licensing not confirmed

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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 literature22 passages

During the tryout, her name had been billed below the title, but because of her endearing performance the producers placed her name above, along with Brown’s. But for all her grand notices, Worth never again appeared in a Broadway musical. book:complete-book-of-1950s-broadway-musicals-the-dan-dietz#p184

During the 1940s, Rodgers and Hart suffered one of their rare flops, Higher and Higher (1940), at the Shubert; book:at-this-theatre-100-years-of-broadway-shows-stories-and-botto-louis-viagas-rober#p102

Higher and Higher (4/4/40; 84 performances). The elements for success all seemed to be in place: a cast including Shirley Ross (returning from Hollywood), Marta Eggerth, Jack Haley, Leif Erickson, Robert Rounseville, and Sharkey the Seal; a libretto by Joshua Logan and Gladys Hurlbut, and direction by Logan; and a hit… book:broadway-its-history-people-and-places-an-encyclopedia-bloom-ken-1949-2nd-ed-new#p502

Higher and Higher, 196, 309, 449, 480 book:broadway-its-history-people-and-places-an-encyclopedia-bloom-ken-1949-2nd-ed-new#p647

Friendly Enemy Gerald Marks Sam Lerner Hold It! 1948 book:encyclopedia-of-theatre-music-a-comprehensive-listing-of-lewine-richard-simon-al#p54

HIGHER AND HIGHER was written as a vehicle for Vera Zorina, who wisely opted for LOUISIANA PURCHASE [Berlin: May 8, 1940] and playing against Gaxton and Moore instead of Sharkey, HIGHER AND HIGHER’s scene-stealing seal. The show was rather negligible, with what might be Rodgers and Hart’s blandest score—except for one… book:show-tunes-the-songs-shows-and-careers-of-broadway-s-suskin-steven-suskin-steven#p130

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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