Tip-Toes

[tip-toh]

Tip-Toes is a musical with a book by Guy Bolton and Fred Thompson, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and music by George Gershwin. It centers on a vaudeville act known as the Three Kayes - comprised of Al, Uncle Hen, and Tip-Toes - who try to pass themselves off as aristocrats in the upper class community of Palm Beach, Florida.

Production history

Tip-Toes was produced by Alex A. Aarons and Vinton Freedley, who wanted to capitalize on the Florida land boom, which was then at its peak. They reunited the creative team of Lady, Be Good!, which had been a hit the previous year with Fred and Adele Astaire. The Broadway production opened at the Liberty Theatre on December 28, 1925 and ran for 192 performances. It was directed by John Harwood, and the dance numbers were staged by Sammy Lee and Earl Lindsay. The cast included Queenie Smith as Tip-Toes, Allen Kearns as Steve Burton, Jeanette MacDonald as Sylvia Metcalf, Andrew Tombes as Al, and Harry Watson Jr. as Hen. A West End production featuring Peggy Beatty, Vera Bryer, Laddie Cliff, Dorothy Dickinson, Allan Kearns, John Kirby, and Evan Thomas opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on August 31, 1926 and ran for 182 performances.

In 1927, the show was made into one of the last silent films, starring Dorothy Gish as Tip-Toes (spelled Tiptoes in the film) and Will Rogers as Hen. A sound film has yet to be made.

In 1982, original orchestra books for the show were among many documents unearthed in a warehouse in Secaucus, New Jersey, and in 1989 two concerts were presented at the Library of Congress to celebrate the discovery. In 1998, Carnegie Hall decided to present the show as part of its two-year Gershwin Centenary program, and a full restoration of the project was undertaken by reconciling original programs and scripts with the existing musical materials. Of this performance, Stephen Holden of the New York Times said, "the songs and orchestrations have that irresistible fizz that at its perkiest conveys a compressed frenzy of euphoria." In 2001, New World Records released a CD with the scores for both Tip-Toes and Tell Me More, another 1925 musical by the Gershwin brothers, which included the cast from the Carnegie Hall concert.

In 2007, the musical was given its first full staging following its 1998 restoration by the Whitefire Theatre in Sherman Oaks, California. Variety described the production as "an exuberant reminder of the let's-put-on-a-show spirit characterizing the best musical productions of any era."

Plot summary

Tip-Toes once had a flirtation with Rollo Metcalf, and an incriminating photo of the pair falls into the hands of Rollo's jealous wife, Sylvia, whose brother Steve, the millionaire owner of a glue factory, meets Tip-Toes and immediately falls in love with her. After a car accident leaves the girl with amnesia, she isn't sure whether she's Tip-Toes Kaye or socialite Roberta Calhoun Van Rensselaer, the identity her scheming, social-climbing relatives have invented for her. Comic mass confusion follows, but true love wins in the end.