Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Fiorello - 'Politics and Poker' - original Broadway version


Fiorello!

Book by Jerome Weidman and George Abbott
Music by Jerry Bock and Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
Directed by George Abbott and Choreography by Peter Gennaro

The show opened in November of 1959 and ran for 795 performances.

Tony awards
Best Musical
Best featured actor, Tom Bosley
Best direction, George Abbott

Why am I sharing this delightful and trenchant tune?  It came to mind because my Toronto Riding is holding a by-election tomorrow.  There are five vacant Provincial Parliament seats in Ontario and it is, once again, my duty to play my part in the game by voting.  However, I must acknowledge my debt to the witty writers of Broadway and Hollywood who help to remind me not to take this sort of thing too seriously.

 Brian Donlevy, William Demarest

Skeeter (William Demarest):  "If it wasn't for graft, you'd get a very low type of people in politics.  Men without ambition.  Jellyfish.

- The Great McGinty, 1940
Written and directed by Preston Sturges

William B. Davidson, Mae West

Tira (Mae West):  What do you do for a living?
Ernest Brown (William B. Davison):  Oh, uh, sort of a politician.
Tira:  I don't like work either.

- I'm No Angel, 1933
Written by Mae West, directed by Wesley Ruggles

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