Productions1 on Broadway
| 1923 | Apollo Theatre Original. September 3, 1923 · Dorothy Donnelly Choreogrer: Julian Alfred | 346 performances |
Every Broadway staging held in broadway-data, sourced to IBDB. West End runs are not yet held.
Recordings 5 albums 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 literature9 passages
W. C. Fields demonstrates his latest musical creation, the kadoola-kadoola. book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-green-stanley-green-kay-5th-ed-rev-and-updated-by#p65
During the tryout, the traditional song “Pretty Poppy” was deleted. book:complete-book-of-1950s-broadway-musicals-the-dan-dietz#p237
He played con man Eustace McGargle in the musical comedy Poppy (1923); the show’s unsigned review in the New York Times reported that Fields “has never been quite so amusing as he is in ‘Poppy’—nor so versatile,” adding that he “creates comedy where certainly none existed in the libretto.” book:historical-dictionary-of-the-broadway-musical-volume-22-william-a-everett-paul-r#p146
Although unknown today, Poppy ran for an entire season, most unusual at the time. book:historical-dictionary-of-the-broadway-musical-volume-22-william-a-everett-paul-r#p312
His first hit was “Alibi Baby’? (music by Stephen Jones) from POPPY [September 3, 1923], although the show’s contractual lyricist refused him credit. book:show-tunes-1905-1985-the-songs-shows-and-careers-of-steven-suskin-1st-ed-new-yor#p263
Although he would later use inexperience with musicals as his excuse for the show’s Broadway debacle, Hands had in fact already directed a complex musical called Poppy, by Peter Nichols, for the Royal Shakespeare Company; it had won the Society of West End Theatres’ Best Musical Award. book:not-since-carrie-forty-years-of-broadway-musical-flops-ken-mandelbaum#p349
Passages naming this show, found by keyword across 178 books. Where this show turns up in the literature, not curated trivia about it.