Theatre Register
Jumbo

Jumbo

Shows · Jumbo

Plotted by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur to give plenty of opportunity for the specialty acts recruited from all over the world, the book had to do with a debt-ridden circus and what the well-meaning but inept publicity man Claudius B. Bowers (Jimmy Durante) does to help save the day.

Opened
1935
Performances
233
Type
Musical
Era
Early
Music: Richard RodgersLyrics: Lorenz HartBook: Ben Hecht & Charles MacArthur

Productions1 on Broadway

1935 Hippodrome Original. November 16, 1935 · John Murray Anderson, George Abbott 233 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 literature33 passages

The Hippodrome, once located on 43rd Street and 6th Avenue, was a huge barn of a theatre that had not been in use for five years when showman Billy Rose decided that it would be just the place to house the spectacular circus musical he named Jumbo. book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-green-stanley-green-kay-5th-ed-rev-and-updated-by#p117

Five of the six songs from Rodgers and Hart’s Jumbo can be heard in the 1962 film, which retains the basic plot and, twenty-seven years after its Broadway debut, its original star, Jimmy Durante. book:enchanted-evenings-the-broadway-musical-from-show-boat-block-geoffrey-oxford-new#p240

1935 16 November: Jumbo, a circus musical with a score by Rodgers and Hart and starring Jimmy Durante in the midst of animals and circus acts, premieres at the Hippodrome and runs for 233 performances. book:historical-dictionary-of-the-broadway-musical-volume-22-william-a-everett-paul-r#p21

Their new shows included Jumbo, 1935 ("My Romance," "Little Girl Blue"); Babes in Arms, 1937 ("Where or When," "I Wish I Were in Love Again," "My Funny Valentine," "The Lady Is a Tramp"); The Boys from Syracuse, 1938 ("Falling in Love with Love," "This Can't Be Love"); By Jupiter, 1942 ("Wait Till You See Her"); and tw… book:showtime-a-history-of-the-broadway-musical-theatre-larry-stempel#p311

Besides Simple Simon and America’s Sweetheart, seven other Rodgers and Hart musicals opened during the decade: Jumbo, On Your Toes, Babes in Arms, I’d Rather Be Right, I Married an Angel, The Boys from Syracuse, and Too Many Girls. book:the-complete-book-of-1930s-broadway-musicals-dietz-dan-rowman-littlefield-publis#p36

but the film still appears to be in legal limbo and, along with the once-promised original cast recording of Jumbo and the unavailability of the 1952 film version of Frank Loesser’s Where’s Charley?, one assumes these treasures won’t surface any time soon. book:the-complete-book-of-1930s-broadway-musicals-dietz-dan-rowman-littlefield-publis#p405

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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