Dearest Enemy
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| Dearest Enemy | |
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| Music | Richard Rodgers |
| Lyrics | Lorenz Hart |
| Book | Herbert Fields |
| Based upon | A true Revolutionary War incident |
| Productions | 1925 Broadway |
Dearest Enemy is a musical with a book by Herbert Fields, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, and music by Richard Rodgers.
Based on a true Revolutionary War incident, its heroine is Mary Lindley Murray who, under orders from General Washington, detained British troops by serving them cake and wine in her Kips Bay, Manhattan home long enough for some 4,000 American soldiers to reassemble in Washington Heights in September 1776. Reality gives way to fanciful fictionalization with the addition of a pair of love stories, one involving Mary's daughter Jane and British General Tyron's son Harry, the other focusing on the on-again, off-again relationship between Mary's Irish niece Betsy Burke and British Capt. Sir John Copeland. Also playing a role in the plot is a houseful of beautiful young ladies eager to engage the enemy in more than just conversation, and a group of handsome young men happy to forget their patriotic duty for refreshments, music, and flirtations at the Murray mansion.
While this first collaboration of Rodgers and Hart basically conforms to the operetta style of the day, the score offers a hint of the sophistication the team would exhibit in their later joint efforts.
The Broadway production, directed by John Murray Anderson, opened on September 18, 1925 at the Knickerbocker Theatre, where it ran for 286 performances. The cast included Flavia Arcaro as Mary, Helen Spring as Jane, John Seymour as Harry, Helen Ford as Betsy, Charles Purcell as Sir John, and H. E. Eldridge as Washington.
A 1955 television production featured Cyril Ritchard, Anne Jeffreys, Robert Sterling, and Cornelia Otis Skinner. A cast recording of that broadcast was released on compact disc in 1997.
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