Three Sisters (musical)
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| Three Sisters | |
|---|---|
| Music | Jerome Kern |
| Lyrics | Oscar Hammerstein II |
| Book | Oscar Hammerstein II |
| Productions | 1934 West End |
Three Sisters is a musical written by Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics and book) and Jerome Kern (music).
The musical introduced the song "I Won't Dance", and also includes "Lonely Feet", "Hand in Hand", "Now I Have Springtime", and "My Beautiful Circus Girl".[1][2]
Contents
Plot
The show, set at the beginning of World War I in 1914, concerns the romantic lives of three sisters. The sisters travel the English countryside with their widowed father Will Barbour, a traveling photographer who works at local fairs.[3] The eldest daughter, Tiny, is engaged to Eustace, an earnest if slightly dull constable, although she is attracted to George, an adventurous carnival performer. Dorrie, the middle daughter, is ashamed of her itinerant upbringing and seeks to marry into the aristocracy and enter high society. The youngest daughter, Mary, falls for a gypsy performer.[2] The men are sent to the Western Front in France to fight, while the women remain home.[2]
Productions
The original production opened in London at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on April 19, 1934.[2][4] The production featured Victoria Hopper, Stanley Holloway, Adele Dixon, Esmond Knight, and Charlotte Greenwood.[2][5] Reception was mixed,[3] and the play closed after two months, the shortest run in the history of the Drury Lane Theatre to that point.[3] The show, which was not produced in the U.S., was the last collaboration between Kern and Hammerstein.[3] Three Sisters was Kern's last show to appear in the West End.[3]
Greg MacKellan, the artistic director of the 42nd Street Moon theatre company, researched the musical, and in 1995 presented a concert reading at the New Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco.[3] MacKellan used a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts in 2010 to reconstruct the script and score, as parts were missing.[3] The following year, 42nd Street Moon presented the American debut of Three Sisters in San Francisco at the Eureka Theatre for a three-week run.[1][3]
Legacy
Although this show was not considered a success and never made it to Broadway, the song "I Won't Dance" was later included in the film version of Roberta (1935).[6] and became so popular in that context that it is almost always included in stage revivals and cast recordings of Roberta.[citation needed] The song "Lonely Feet" was sung by Irene Dunne in the 1934 film adaptation of the Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein musical Sweet Adeline.
References
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