Oh, Kay!

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Oh, Kay! is a musical with the music of George Gershwin and the lyrics by Ira Gershwin . The book is by Guy Bolton and PG Wodehouse . The show was produced by Alexander A. Aarons and Vinton Freedley ; the role of Kay was tailored to Gertrude Lawrence , in another leading role was Victor Moore .

The Broadway premiere took place on November 8, 1926 at the Imperial Theater, the first performance in London's West End on September 21, 1927 at His Majesty's Theater. In German-speaking countries, the musical was shown for the first time on May 31, 1978 at the Dortmund Municipal Theaters; the translation is by Max Colpet .

action

The piece is set in Long Island during the alcohol prohibition period . A long-vacant beach house in East Hampton has been turned into a warehouse by alcohol smugglers. The smugglers are Shorty McGee, Larry Potter and an English nobleman known as "The Duke". At the time of the action, the Dukes' yacht is in the roadstead in front of this beach. His ship serves as a smuggling transporter - on board is his sister, Lady Kay.
Millionaire Jimmy Winter knows nothing of any of this. He wants to celebrate his wedding with Constance Appleton in his summer cottage. He also has no suspicion of Shorty, who pretends to be a butler to secure the alcohol in the basement. Jimmy doesn't have time for that either, because his wife doesn't accept the terms of the divorce. Constance doesn't know that Jimmy is not divorced yet and leaves the house angrily. As soon as the bride is gone, Kay appears, who Jimmy had saved from drowning a year earlier on the same stretch of beach. Because an officer from customs is on her tail, she pretends to be a newlywed - and Jimmy falls in love with her. The next morning, Constance, accompanied by her father, Judge Appleton, comes to settle the wedding issue. To their satisfaction, Jimmy receives the news that his wife is consenting to the divorce. Kay now slips into the role of the butler woman, so that the two look after the company as a servant couple. While the smugglers are thinking about how to get the alcohol out of the house, Kay intends to prevent Jimmy's marriage. In order to bring all interests together, Shorty pretends to be an undercover customs agent at the wedding, arrests Jimmy for violating the prohibition law, while Larry and the Duke load the confiscated goods onto a truck. When customs officials show up and try to arrest Shorty, Jimmy and Kay, the wedding with Constance finally falls apart. Larry pretends to be deputy sheriff and saves alcohol from the authorities. He lost the evidence and the smuggler, whereupon Jimmy and Kay were released and married the next day.

The role of the English aristocrat , "The Duke", becomes the "Duke of Datchet" in the West End. In the 1960s off-Broadway production by P. G. Wodehouse at the East 74th Street Theater, she is titled "Earl of Blandings".

Known music number

filming

Oh, Kay! was made into a silent film in 1928 , directed by Mervyn LeRoy .

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