Use Facebook login
LOGOUT  Welcome
 

Work

George Gershwin

George Gershwin Composer

Primrose (musical)   

Performances: 1
Tracks: 1
Loading...
Musicology:
  • Primrose (musical)
    Year: 1924
    Pr. Instrument: Voice
After George Gershwin became a success as a songwriter, Broadway score composer, and as the pianist/composer of "Rhapsody in Blue," London theater producer George Grossmith engaged him to write a score for a show at the Winter Garden Theater in London. Grossmith wrote the book himself with Guy Bolton; Desmond Carter collaborated with Ira Gershwin in writing the lyrics. The show was a healthy success, running 255 performances. An intriguing thing about the score is how much Gershwin adapted his familiar style to English tastes; few songs (notably "Boy Wanted" and "Naughty Baby") have Gershwin's "jazz age" feeling. Some of the numbers are patter songs, and others are very English pastoral tunes. There was, probably as a result of this, no contemporary Broadway production. The musical was not played in the United States until 1987. The musical is also the first in which Gershwin wrote some of the orchestrations himself. This is important because of a continuing controversy about Gershwin's abilities as an orchestrator. Assertions that he did not know anything about that craft until later are clearly untrue.

Without a Broadway production, the score did not spark any U.S. hit songs, but notable tunes in it include "Isn't it Wonderful?" and "Till I Meet Someone Like You."

© All Music Guide
Portions of Content Provided by All Music Guide.
© 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide is a registered trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.
AMG
Select a performer for this work
Loading...
 
© 1994-2012 Classical Archives LLC — The Ultimate Classical Music Destination ™