Roberta

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This article is about the 1933 Broadway play. For the 1935 film, see Roberta (1935 film). For the community in the United States, see Roberta, Georgia.

Roberta
Music	Jerome Kern
Lyrics	Otto Harbach
Book	Otto Harbach
Based upon	Gowns by Roberta, a novel by Alice Duer Miller
Productions	1933 Broadway

Roberta is a musical from 1933 with music by Jerome Kern, and lyrics and book by Otto Harbach. The musical is based on the novel Gowns by Roberta by Alice Duer Miller. The play notably features the famed songs "Yesterdays", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "You're Devastating", and "The Touch of Your Hand".

[edit] Productions

The original Broadway production opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre on November 18, 1933, and ran for 295 performances. It starred Tamara Drasin (billed as Tamara), Bob Hope, George Murphy, Lyda Roberti, Fred MacMurray, Fay Templeton, Ray Middleton (billed as Raymond E. Middleton), and Sydney Greenstreet. Hope, Murphy, MacMurray and Greenstreet were not yet the Hollywood stars they would soon be, and Middleton was not the Broadway leading man he would become after Annie Get Your Gun.

[edit] Other versions

The play was made into a film in 1935 by RKO starring Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Randolph Scott. The film omitted "The Touch of Your Hand" (sung by a minor character), and "You're Devastating" (originally Middleton's big song in the show), but added the Kern songs "I Won't Dance" and "Lovely to Look At", which became so popular that they are now always included in revivals and recordings of Roberta.

In 1952, MGM remade Roberta under the title Lovely to Look At. This remake also included the additional songs written for the 1935 film. It starred Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Red Skelton, Ann Miller, and Zsa Zsa Gabor and was made in Technicolor.

The show was also presented on television in a highly adapted, modernized 1969 NBC color telecast. This production was presented by Bob Hope, who reprised his original stage role, inserting many new, then-topical jokes about current events. Others in the cast included Michele Lee, John Davidson, and Janis Paige (who sang "I Won't Dance" with a male chorus).