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See America First

Shows · See America First

A patriotic American senator wants his daughter to marry a proper American cowboy rather than a titled foreigner. The daughter and her English duke suitor scheme to outwit the senator, leading to romantic mix-ups across the American West as the show satirizes both European snobbery and American jingoism.

Opened
1916
Performances
15
Type
Musical
Era
Early
Music: Cole PorterLyrics: Cole PorterBook: T. Lawrason Riggs

Productions1 on Broadway

1916 Maxine Elliott's Theatre Original. March 28, 1916 · J. H. Benrimo 15 performances

Every Broadway staging held in broadway-data, sourced to IBDB. West End runs are not yet 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 literature20 passages

COLE PorTER’s first attempt at Broadway, See America First (3/28/16; 15 performances), was unappreciated. In the cast was future movie star Clifton Webb, then a popular musical comedy performer. book:broadway-its-history-people-and-places-an-encyclopedia-bloom-ken-1949-2nd-ed-new#p365

Porter’s first break came when he met Elisabeth Marbury, who produced many of Jerome Kern’s early hits. Their show entitled See America First opened at the Mina Elliotr’s Theatre with Clifton Webb in the lead. book:broadway-its-history-people-and-places-an-encyclopedia-bloom-ken-1949-2nd-ed-new#p437

See America First, 343, 415 book:broadway-its-history-people-and-places-an-encyclopedia-bloom-ken-1949-2nd-ed-new#p683

r had already produced a musical on Broadway, See America First (1916), before Gershwin or Rodgers had begun their Broadway careers and only one year after Kern had inaugurated his series of distinctive musicals at the Princess Theatre. book:enchanted-evenings-the-broadway-musical-from-show-boat-block-geoffrey-oxford-new#p71

Although his first full score for Broadway, See America First (1916), was a failure, he kept persevering with relatively successful shows during the 1920s. book:historical-dictionary-of-the-broadway-musical-volume-22-william-a-everett-paul-r#p314

SEE AMERICA FIRST—made up mostly of material written for fraternity musi-cals—was viewed as a mediocre college show (with surprisingly adept lyrics) and quickly closed. book:show-tunes-1905-1985-the-songs-shows-and-careers-of-steven-suskin-1st-ed-new-yor#p232

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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