Mark Griffin Read Online Free

almost hear the cigarchomping producer say.
    When Lee Shubert offered Vincente a return to Broadway in the form of a new musical entitled Hooray for What! the unhappy transplant didn’t hesitate. After he wrangled himself out of his lucrative Paramount contract, his eight-month adventure in Hollywood was over. Although he would be missed by a small circle of West Coast intimates, the rest of the industry barely took notice of his departure. Little did they know that he would be back, and next time out, it would be to stay.
    With the joyous sound of New York traffic once again ringing in his ears, Minnelli told columnist James Aswell: “I have just returned from Hollywood where all the world’s a succession of stages. After years spent working in the theater on one stage at a time, I found it just a bit terrifying to create a scene that covered almost a quarter of a mile. . . . In my opinion, the screen as a musical comedy medium has not as yet been fully and completely developed.”
Even though he had just skulked away from Hollywood’s sound stages in defeat, Minnelli expressed very definite ideas about how screen musicals could be improved upon. He called for songs that actually advanced the plot and looked forward to “the perfection of color film.” 2

    Roy Roberts, Ed Wynn, and Vivian Vance in Minnelli’s Hooray for What! Vance replaced future MGM arranger Kay Thompson, who was originally cast as the show’s singing spy. “Kay Thompson was fired from that show,” remembers songwriter Hugh Martin, who was in the chorus. “She was fired not by Vincente but by the stupid Shuberts. Vincente was as horrified as we all were.” PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SHUBERT ARCHIVE
    Less than a year after abandoning Broadway to teach Hollywood a thing or two, “the new genius of the theatre” was back with little to show for his trouble. While Minnelli was away, the Great White Way had matured. Star-driven, plotless revues like The Show Is On suddenly seemed extravagantly wasteful in F.D.R.’s New Deal America. Even musicals were expected to sober up and have something important to say.
    As conceived by Yip Harburg, the antiwar extravaganza Hooray for What! would deliver first-rate songs (such as “Down with Love”) as well as political substance. Harburg had channeled his very real revulsion regarding the rise of fascism into a riotous farce. The musical’s plot concerned Chuckles, an amateur inventor who stumbles upon a formula for an all-powerful gas. (“This gas will revive the dead. I’ve got a big offer from the Republican party.”) After making his discovery, Chuckles is suddenly sought after by world leaders, munitions makers, and the glamorous international spy Stephanie Stephanovich. After secret agents get hold of the formula for the gas and sell it, each
of the world’s great dictators all believe that they alone are in possession of the ultimate secret weapon. But one of the spies has scrambled the formula so that what is ultimately unleashed on the world is laughing gas.
    Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, the talented team that would later give Broadway a record-breaking triumph in the form of Life with Father , were brought on board to assist Harburg with his scenario. Harold Arlen would write the music. Vaudeville veteran Ed Wynn was cast as Chuckles. Agnes de Mille would choreograph the show’s “Hero Ballet.” While Howard Lindsay was credited as the show’s book director, the entire production would be staged by Minnelli, who admitted, “I approached my first book show as if it were a revue. . . . The only difference to me was that one set of characters carried through from beginning to end.” 3 Given the content of Hooray for What! and its very topical satire, Minnelli would not be able to rely solely on his designs to win the audience over. The scenic effects would be in service to the story this time, not the other way around.
    Nevertheless, during the show’s pre-Broadway tryout in October