Theatre Register

I’d Rather Be Right

Shows · I’d Rather Be Right

I’d Rather Be Right was the most anxiously awaited theatrical event of the decade for two reasons: the central character was President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the part was being played by the legendary George M. Cohan, who was returning to the musical stage for the first time in ten years in the only song-and-dance show he ever appeared in that he did not write himself. The work, however, was considered not quite u…

Opened
1937
Performances
290
Type
Musical
Era
Early
Music: Richard RodgersLyrics: Lorenz HartBook: George S. Kaufman & Moss Hart

Licensing 2 entries

US Concord Theatricals R&H Theatricals available
UK Concord Theatricals R&H Theatricals 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 literature27 passages

was the most anxiously awaited theatrical event of the decade for two reasons: the central character was President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the part was being played by the legendary George M. Cohan, who was returning to the musical stage for the first time in ten years in the only song-and-dance show he ever appeared… book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-seventh-edition-stanley-green-cary-ginell#p105

ends with his final Broadway triumph in 1937 playing President Roosevelt in I’d Rather Be Right, the only musical in which he appeared that he did not write himself. book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-seventh-edition-stanley-green-cary-ginell#p214

In fact, three years before the creative crisis that led to Lady in the Dark, Kaufman and Hart had drafted the first act of a musical based on psychoanalysis starring Marlene Dietrich before settling on I’d Rather Be Right with Rodgers and Hart, and George M. Cohan as Franklin Roosevelt. book:enchanted-evenings-the-broadway-musical-from-show-boat-block-geoffrey-oxford-new#p172

Sam H. Harris, who had earlier produced fifteen Cohan musicals, seven Berlin shows, the Gershwins’ Of Thee I Sing, Porter’s Jubilee, and Rodgers and Hart’s I’d Rather Be Right; book:enchanted-evenings-the-broadway-musical-from-show-boat-block-geoffrey-oxford-new#p651

The decade saw the final musicals of Gershwin, Kern, Friml, and Youmans, but also offered Broadway’s first look at Arlen, Blitzstein, Lane, Loewe, Rome, and Weill. Note that I’d Rather Be Right offered an occasionally peppery but mostly avuncular Franklin D. Roosevelt, and its gentle ribbing couldn’t have riled. book:the-complete-book-of-1930s-broadway-musicals-dietz-dan-rowman-littlefield-publis#p12

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

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

Something wrong here? Correct a field or report the problem. Every change is recorded in public under the contributor licence.