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1937, critics couldn’t help but notice how pretty political satire could be. “An air of luxury predominates, for Vincente Minnelli has outdone himself in providing beautiful costumes and backgrounds,” Elinor Hughes noted in her Boston Herald review. Also singled out for praise was “a striking blonde girl with a husky voice and an original style.” 4 Her name was Kay Thompson. Although Thompson was clearly a rising star and had walked away with some of the best notices in Boston, it was not long after her out-of-town triumph that she was informed that her services were no longer required.
    “Kay Thompson was fired from that show,” says composer Hugh Martin, who was also in the cast. “I was outside her dressing room when it happened and I never heard such sobbing in my life. . . . She was fired not by Vincente but by the stupid Shuberts. Vincente was as horrified as we all were. . . . But Kay lost her job in Hooray for What! and it was given to Vivian Vance, who later played ‘Ethel’ in the I Love Lucy series.” 5 Despite the raves Thompson had received, the Shuberts suddenly decided that their leading lady was too angular and bony. Vivian Vance (Thompson’s understudy) was the kind of voluptuous Joan Blondell type that the Shuberts found sexy. Vance, who idolized Thompson, suddenly found herself in a very awkward position, but at Kay’s urging, she went on.
    Along with Thompson, Agnes de Mille was ousted. She was replaced with future MGM choreographer Robert Alton. During its out-of-town overhaul, Hooray for What! suddenly became less about Harburg’s antifascist themes and more about Ed Wynn’s off-the-wall buffoonery. There were reports of friction between Wynn and Minnelli. Other roles were recast. But despite
all of the backstage bedlam, Hooray for What! was pronounced a hit when it opened on December 1, 1937.

    IT WAS COMPOSER VERNON DUKE who suggested that Minnelli next direct a musical version of the S. N. Behrman play Serena Blandish . Minnelli liked the idea but took it a step further—a musical version of Serena Blandish —but with an all-black cast. He envisioned Cotton Club headliner Lena Horne in the title role of a young woman being groomed to meet high society. And if Minnelli had his way, Ethel Waters would strut her stuff as the irrepressible Countess Flor Di Folio.
    In April 1938, it was announced that S. J. Perelman would be tackling the adaptation, and the incomparable Cole Porter was set to compose the score. It seemed that Serena had all the makings of another Minnelli-designed blockbuster. But then, as quickly as the project came together, it began to unravel. In September, the New York Times broke the news: “Not that anyone ever took it too seriously, but Vincente Minnelli has dropped his plan to present a Negro version of Serena Blandish , leaving Mr. M. to consider other ventures.” 6
    Mr. M. had also been toying with the idea of mounting “a surrealistic fantasy set to jig time.” Tentatively entitled The Light Fantastic , the new show was being planned as a third collaboration for Minnelli and Bea Lillie. Vincente also hoped that for this outing, his friend Dorothy Parker would contribute a sketch or two. All of this was put aside, however, when legendary impresario Max Gordon offered Minnelli an opportunity to design a new musical. With a score supplied by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II (the same team that had revolutionized Broadway a dozen years earlier with Show Boat ), there were great expectations for the new production, Very Warm for May . s
    Advance publicity promised that the musical would be “reminiscent of the song and dance fun-fests that used to tenant The Princess Theatre.” The story, which concerned young performers in a summer stock theater getting mixed up with gangsters, was infused with the kind of “let’s put on a show!” exuberance that would soon become a trademark of the Mickey Rooney- Judy Garland musicals of the