Pal Joey

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Pal Joey is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers and texts by Lorenz Hart . The book is by John O'Hara based on his short stories published in The New Yorker magazine in the late 1930s . George Abbott produced and directed the production. Vivienne Segal was seen in the role of Vera Simpson; Gene Kelly played his first leading role as Joey on Broadway . It premiered on December 25, 1940 at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in New York .
The British opening was on October 31, 1954 at Prince's (now Shaftesbury) Theater in London's West End . The German-language premiere took place on October 21, 1980 at the Essen Theater in a translation by Horst Königstein .

content

Place and Time: Chicago in the late 1930s.

Pal Joey is a braggart and very self-absorbed. He has a master of ceremonies (Master of Ceremonies / MC ) at the nightclub business well be. His charm and good looks also help him over the remaining character flaws.
When the rich Vera Simpson shows up at the club one evening, he immediately smells the big money, serves his nice but poor friend Linda and gets to work on the expensive piece. Then he runs into open doors, because the somewhat older and married Vera is very mad about him and obviously needs a toy. Joey is now making a big splash with Vera's money; He will soon have a new cloakroom, a new apartment and a night club. But happiness does not last long; A former companion, the dancer Gladys, and the seedy Ludlow Lowell make Joey dependent on business and plan to blackmail Vera Simpson over her lover. Linda, who happens to find out about it, warns Vera that the plan will fail.
At the end, for a change, Joey is dumped by Vera, who also blocks all accounts, but Joey has plans again ...

Well-known music numbers

  • I could write a book
  • Zip
  • Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered

filming

The 1957 film adaptation of the same name by George Sidney with Frank Sinatra , Rita Hayworth and Kim Novak is based on the musical. See Pal Joey (film) .

literature

Web links