Irene (musical)

Irene is a musical with a book by James Montgomery, lyrics by Joseph McCarthy, and music by Harry Tierney.

Based on Montgomery's play Irene O'Dare, it is set in New York City's Upper West Side and focuses on immigrant shop assistant Irene O'Dare, who is introduced to Long Island's high society when she's hired by one of its leading grande dames to help redecorate her home.

Early productions

The original Broadway production, directed by Edward Royce, opened on November 18 1919 at the Vanderbilt Theatre, where it ran for 675 performances, at the time the record for the longest-running show in Broadway history, one it maintained for nearly two decades. The cast included Edith Day as Irene, Walter Regan as tycoon Donald Marshall, and Bobbie Watson as Madame Lucy, a flamboyant male dress designer.

The show made a star of Day, who departed the cast after five months to recreate her role at London's Empire Theatre, where it ran for 399 performances. (Following its closing, she remained in England to become the first lady of West End musicals.) Day was replaced in the Broadway production by Helen Shipman, who had previously starred in the 1917 Broadway musical Oh, Boy! and went on to perform in many other Broadway musicals during the 1920s and early 1930s.

Irene enjoyed a brief Broadway revival at Jolson's 59th Street Theatre in 1923 with Dale Winter as Irene, Jere Delaney as Madame Lucy, and Walter Regan reprising his role as Donald. Eventually there were seventeen national touring companies, and it was filmed twice, first as a 1926 silent movie with Colleen Moore and again in 1940 with Anna Neagle.

Later productions

In 1971, the revival of the 1925 musical No, No, Nanette with screen legend Ruby Keeler proved to be an enormous hit. Its producer, Harry Rigby, deciding to cash in on the nostalgia craze by reviving another vintage show with another glamorous movie star as its centerpiece, zeroed in on Irene with Debbie Reynolds making her Broadway debut in the title role. Rigby hired librettist Hugh Wheeler to rework the show, which retained only five of the original songs and added tunes written by McCarthy with other composers and original numbers by Charles Gaynor and Otis Clements, with additional material by Wally Harper and Jack Lloyd, written specifically for the revival.

The production was troubled from the start. Billy De Wolfe was forced to withdraw due to illness and was replaced by George S. Irving as Madame Lucy. Reviews in Toronto were mixed, and when Reynolds was stricken with a throat ailment, the producers, rather than cancel the sell-out performances, had her mime her dialogue and songs on stage to director John Gielgud's reading of them from the wings, much to the dismay of angry audiences. Philadelphia critics were brutal, and Gielgud, an odd choice for a lightweight musical comedy, was replaced by Gower Champion, who had helmed a Los Angeles revival of Annie Get Your Gun with Reynolds. Peter Gennaro was hired to restage the musical numbers, and Joseph Stein was brought in to doctor the book, which now had Irene posing as a countess in cahoots with couturier Madame Lucy (the former Liam O'Dougherty) in a scheme to promote his fashions.

Postponing the Broadway opening, the producers brought the work-in-progress to Washington, D.C., where it was seen by President Nixon and his family. Their declaration that Irene was a hit made headlines and spurred advance-ticket sales in New York City.

After thirteen previews, the show opened on March 13 1973 as the inaugural production of the Minskoff Theatre, where it ran for 594 performances. In addition to Reynolds and Irving (who won the Tony Award for his performance), the cast included Patsy Kelly, Monte Markham as Donald, Ruth Warrick, Janie Sell, Meg Bussert, and Reynolds' daughter Carrie Fisher. While reviews were still mixed, the all-important Clive Barnes of the New York Times described it as "raucous, frequently cheerful, and the best 1919 musical in town."

On February 7 1974, Reynold's former MGM co-star, Jane Powell, replaced her. "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows," which had been cut during the pre-Broadway run (although Reynolds' rendition was included in the original cast album), was restored to the score. Reynolds returned to play the final week in New York, then took the show on tour, playing for five months before being replaced again by Powell.

The Broadway revival led to an Australian production with Julie Anthony, who then went on to star in a 1976 London revival that lasted 974 performances.

Synopsis

Irene O'Dare is a humble but ambitious, hard-working Irish girl from West Side Manhattan, who runs a little music store with her widowed mother. Irene is sent to tune a piano for young tycoon Donald Marshall III, a Long Island society gentleman, and they promptly fall in love, each captivated by how different the other is from their usual friends. Donald's ne'er-do-well cousin Ozzie wants help to jump start a fashion business to be run by his friend, "Madame Lucy", a flamboyant male artiste. So Irene and her pretty best friends, Helen McFudd and Jane Burke, are recruited to model Madame Lucy's gowns, and Donald provides financing. Irene's mother and Donald's mother do not see eye-to-eye at first but grow to be friends. Irene poses as a society girl who convinces everyone to shop at Madame Lucy's, but she becomes angry with Donald when he asks her to continue the ruse. He finally relents, her true identity is revealed, and he sings "You made me love you."

Song list

Act I

• The World Must Be Bigger Than an Avenue
• What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For
• The Family Tree
• Alice Blue Gown
• They Go Wild, Simply Wild, Over Me
• An Irish Girl
• Stepping on Butterflies
• Mother Angel Darling
• The Riviera Rage

Act II

• I'm Always Chasing Rainbows
• The Last Part of Every Party
• We're Getting Away With It
• Irene
• The Great Lover Tango
• You Made Me Love You

Awards and nominations

• Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical (Reynolds, nominee)
• Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Irving, winner)
• Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Kelly, nominee)
• Tony Award for Best Choreography (nominee)
• Theatre World Award (Markham, winner)
• Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Performance (Reynolds, winner)

References

• Background information from the Musical Theatre Project
• Extensive information about the show, particularly the 1973 revival
• Information from the NODA website
• Profile of the show at Broadway Musical Home

External links

• Site listing long-running shows, indicating the exceptional run of Irene