Strike Up the Band (musical)
Strike Up the Band is a 1927 musical with a book by Morrie Ryskind, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and music by George Gershwin. It first ran as a satirical show in Philadelphia that year, unsuccessfully, and on Broadway in 1930 after the original book by George S. Kaufman was revised by Ryskind. The show concerned a cheese manufacturer who sponsors a war against Switzerland because it will be named after him. Much of the satire of the 1927 version was replaced in the new version by silliness, leading Ryskind to recall, "What I had to do, in a sense, was to rewrite War and Peace for the Three Stooges."[1] In the 1930 version the opening of Act I of the musical was reset from a cheese factory to a chocolate factory, and much of the work was a re-imagined as occurring during a dream sequence.[2]
This article is about the 1927 stage musical. For the 1940 film musical, see Strike Up the Band (film).Strike Up the Band
George Gershwin
Ira Gershwin
Morrie Ryskind (1930 production)
1930 Broadway
1998 Encores!
2002 Off-Broadway
Aside from the title tune, the 1940 Judy Garland-Mickey Rooney musical film Strike Up the Band had no relation to the stage production.
The overture is often performed as a stand-alone concert work.
Production[edit]
During its original 1927 pre-Broadway tryouts, the political satire closed in Philadelphia, fulfilling original librettist's George S. Kaufman's definition of satire as "what closes on Saturday night."[4][5] The original is heavily influenced by Gilbert and Sullivan.[3]
The Gershwins revised the story with Ryskind for the 1930 Broadway run; they also removed the song The Man I Love, now a Gershwin standard, from the show. They added a dozen new songs and rewrote the lyrics or changed the melodies of many of the 1927 songs. The new score is less Gilbert-and-Sullivan and more swing-influenced.[3] Directed by Alexander Leftwich and choreographed by George Hale, the revised production opened on Broadway at the Times Square Theatre on January 14, 1930, and closed on June 28, 1930, after a moderately successful run of 191 performances. The cast included Dudley Clements and Blanche Ring.[5]
Arrangements[edit]
Music from Strike Up the Band has frequently been re-arranged for performance by different types of musical ensembles.
Don Rose, using Gershwin's original score and notes, augmented the orchestration of the overture to facilitate a performance by a full symphony orchestra (which features more players than a traditional pit orchestra). This version is the one commonly performed by symphony orchestras.
Luther Henderson[11] and Sammy Nestico[12] created arrangement for Brass ensemble. Désiré Dondeyne[13] made an arrangement for wind Orchestra, Warren Barker[14] for Concert band. Martin Caron,[15] member of Duo Caron did a transcription for formation four pianists-eight hands. Also note Gerry Mulligan,[16] Mark Hayes[17] (Choir arrangement) and Carl Strommen[18] (Arrangement for wind instruments). Soon was included in a Gershwin ballad medley recorded by the Modern Jazz Quartet.