Fiorello!
Fiorello! is a musical about New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia, a reform Republican, which debuted on Broadway in 1959, and tells the story of how La Guardia took on the Tammany Hall political machine. The book is by Jerome Weidman and George Abbott, drawn substantially from the 1955 volume Life with Fiorello by Ernest Cuneo,[1] with lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and music by Jerry Bock. It won the three major theatre awards - Tony Award (shared with The Sound of Music), the New York Drama Critics Circle award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.[2] It is one of only ten musicals to win the latter award.
Fiorello!
Life of New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia
Tony Award for Best Musical (1960)
Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1960)
Productions[edit]
Fiorello! opened on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre on November 23, 1959, moved to The Broadway Theatre on May 9, 1961, and closed on October 28, 1961,[3] after 795 performances. It was directed by George Abbott, with choreography by Peter Gennaro. Tom Bosley originated the title role opposite Howard Da Silva as the Republican machine boss Ben Marino. The cast featured Ellen Hanley as Thea, Pat Stanley as Dora, Patricia Wilson as Marie, Nathaniel Frey as Morris, and Broadway's future Superman, Bob Holiday, as Neil.
The 1962 production opened at the New York City Center on June 13, and closed after 16 performances, on June 24, 1962. The show was directed by Jean Dalrymple, staged by Dania Krupska, choreography by Kevin Carlisle, scenery and lighting design by William and Jean Eckart, costume supervision by Joseph Codori, musically directed by Jay Blackton, and press by Lilliam Libman. The cast included Sorrell Booke (Fiorello La Guardia), Art Lund (Ben Marino), Lola Fisher (Thea), Dody Goodman (Dora), Barbara Williams (Marie), Paul Lipson (Morris), Richard France (Neil), Dort Clark (Floyd), and Helen Verbit (Mrs. Pomerantz). One of the singing ensemble included Rosalind Cash.
A staged concert production of Fiorello! was performed at the first Encores! at the New York City Center concert series in February 1994. Directed by Walter Bobbie, the cast featured Jerry Zaks as La Guardia, Philip Bosco as Ben Marino, Faith Prince as Marie, and Elizabeth Futral as Thea.[4]
To celebrate the 20th season of the Encores! series, Fiorello! was presented by the New York City Center Encores! as a staged concert in January 2013. With direction by Gary Griffin and choreography by Alex Sanchez, the cast starred Danny Rutigliano as La Guardia, Shuler Hensley as Marino, Erin Dilly as Marie and Kate Baldwin as Thea. The production included a new Bock/Harnick song during Act II, as part of "The Name's La Guardia" reprise.[5]
The Berkshire Theatre Group (BTG) production of Fiorello! opened Off-Broadway at the East 13th Street Theater on September 4, 2016. Directed by Bob Moss, it received mixed reviews and ran through October 7.[6][7][8] The BTG production first ran at The Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge, Massachusetts in June and July 2016.[9][10]
Background and analysis[edit]
The musical contains several songs built around a group of machine politicians. In "Politics and Poker", Republican machine politicians try to pick a congressional candidate in a district they consider hopeless, while playing a game of poker, and compare politics to poker.[4] The lyric is set to waltz tempo "to underscore the frivolity of their cynicism."[13] In "The Bum Won", these same politicians commiserate with one another after La Guardia has won the election without their support. In "Little Tin Box", they imagine a series of Tammany politicians attempting to explain to a judge that their wealth came from their scrupulous habits of saving ("I can see Your Honor doesn't pull his punches/ And it looks a trifle fishy, I'll admit,/ But for one whole week I went without my lunches/ And it mounted up, Your Honor, bit by bit./ Up Your Honor, bit by bit.")[4]
In "I Love a Cop", a woman factory worker describes her hapless situation of having fallen in love with a policeman who was called out against a strike by her union;
"The Name's La Guardia" has La Guardia campaigning in English, Italian and Yiddish.[14] There is also a ragtime number, "Gentleman Jimmy" about bon vivant mayor James J. "Jimmy" Walker, and the comic "Marie's Law", in which Marie proposes a "law" about how husbands should treat their wives.[4] ("Every girl shall have a honeymoon, which will last at least a year,/ During which aforesaid honeymoon, every care shall disappear…".)
Besides the invention of some peripheral characters, the musical changes some basic facts of La Guardia's life. La Guardia's first wife, Thea, died after only three years of marriage, but the fictional Thea lives another eight years, so that her death can be one more calamity during La Guardia's unsuccessful 1929 mayoral campaign; also, the script downplays La Guardia's generally successful congressional career to make him seem more of an outsider and increase the triumph of his eventual mayoral victory in 1933.
Critical response[edit]
In his review for The New York Times, Brooks Atkinson wrote: "... It is exciting; it is enjoyable and it is decent ... Jerry Bock has set ... a bouncy score ... [A]s the writer of lyrics, Sheldon Harnick is in an unfailingly humorous frame of mind ... [U]nder Mr. Abbott's invincible stage direction, the whole show comes alive with gusto ... [T]he cast could not be more winning or in better voice."[16]
Louis Calta wrote: "'Fiorello!' is the town's latest stage hit ... the attraction earned flowery praise from all of the New York drama critics."[17]
Original cast album[edit]
The original cast recording of Fiorello! was made by Capitol Records on November 29, 1959, just six days after the show opened, and was released on December 14. The album debuted on Billboard's best-selling albums chart January 11, 1960, peaked at No. 7 and remained on the charts for 89 weeks. It has been reissued on CD twice, first by Capitol and then later in a much improved release on EMI's Broadway Angel label (CD #ZDM 7 65023-2).
In popular culture[edit]
On the television show Mad Men, Don Draper and his wife Betty attend a performance of Fiorello! in the season one episode Shoot.[18]