Billion Dollar Baby

Infobox Musical
name= Billion Dollar Baby


caption=
music= Morton Gould
lyrics= Betty Comden and Adolph Green
book= Betty Comden and Adolph Green
basis=
productions= 1945 Broadway
awards= :"For the similarly-named Alice Cooper album, see Billion Dollar Babies"."Billion Dollar Baby" is a musical set on Staten Island and in Atlantic City during the late 1920s. It follows the adventures of an ambitious young woman, Maribelle Jones, in her quest for wealth during the Prohibition era. Betty Comden and Adolph Green, fresh from their success with "On the Town", wrote the book and lyrics; Morton Gould provided the score. Indeed, the production team was something of an "On the Town" reunion: once again, George Abbott directed and Jerome Robbins choreographed.

The show's original Broadway production opened at the Alvin Theatre on December 21 1945 and ran for 220 performances. "Billion Dollar Baby" was not well-received, although Robbins' choreography—which included two dream ballets, a Charleston, and a gangster's funeral procession--was widely praised. (Decades later, Robbins incorporated the Charleston number into "Jerome Robbins' Broadway".) The production starred Joan McCracken as Maribelle, Mitzi Green, William Tabbert, and David Burns; early in the run, McCracken was replaced by Virginia Gorski (later Virginia Gibson). James Mitchell was Tabbert's dance double. Other dancers in the cast included Danny Daniels, Helen Gallagher, and Arthur Partington.

There is no original cast recording, although there is a recording of the 1998 York Theatre Company Mufti Series concert version with Kristin Chenoweth, Debbie Gravitte, Marc Kudisch, Michael McCormick, and Richard B. Shull.

The show gained notoriety for an event that happened in rehearsals: Robbins, walking backwards as he ranted at the dancers, failed to realize how close he was to the orchestra pit—and fell into it. [ Although the story has been attached to a number of other Robbins musicals, both Greg Lawrence and Deborah Jowitt have traced it to "Billion Dollar Baby". Lawrence, "Dance with Demons: The Life of Jerome Robbins" (New York: Berkley, 2001), 101-2; Jowitt, "Jerome Robbins: His Life, His Theater, His Dance" (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004), 116.]

ongs

;Act I
*Million Dollar Smile (Billion Dollar Baby)
*Who's Gonna Be the Winner
*Dreams Come True
*Charleston
*Broadway Blossom
*Speaking of Pals
*There I'd Be
*One Track Mind
*Bad Timing
*The Marathoners
*A Lovely Girl ;Act II
*Funeral Procession
*Havin' a Time
*The Marathon Dance Faithless
*I'm Sure of Your Love
*A Life With Rocky
*The Wedding

References

External links

* [http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=1754 Entry at Internet Broadway Database]