Beggars belief...

I never knew that the original title for Ellington's 1947 musical Beggar's Holiday was Twilight Alley but here is proof from a recent auction oneBay, the handbill for the initial Boston tryout...

Original handbill flyer for the Boston Tryout of Duke Ellington's only Broadway 

 

Opening Date

Dec 26, 1946

Closing Date

Mar 29, 1947

• Approx. 6" x 9"
• Play summary on the reverse.
• Ships packed in a rigid plastic holder

Duke Ellington wrote for Broadway only once, for Beggar’s Holiday in 1946. It wasn’t called that during its three-week tryout at the Boston Opera House, though. That December, it was called Twilight Alley, a street described by Boston Post critic Elliot Norton as “a generally handsome thoroughfare.” But, he immediately added, “It leads nowhere, and it is uphill most of the way, in a dull neighborhood where the folks are rather tired and tiresome, and the jokes are dull.”

Ellington wrote the music, and John LaTouche wrote the book and lyrics to Twilight Alley,  “a parallel in tempo to John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera,” a classic satire from the 18th century. Ellington sent Billy Strayhorn to Boston as arranger.

Twilight Alley boasted an impressive cast and crew. Director John Houseman was a leading light on stage, screen, and radio. Playgoers knew leading man Alfred Drake as Curly from the original Broadway production of Oklahoma! Libby Holman, the bane of social conservatives, was then touring with bluesman Josh White. Zero Mostel played the thoroughly corrupt Peachum, and fellow actor Thomas Gomez would be the first Hispanic nominated for an Oscar, in 1947. It was dancer Valerie Bettis’s first production as choreographer, and music director Max Meth would win Tony awards as best musical director in 1949 and 1952. Dancer and singer Avon Long, a Boston Conservatory graduate, had become synonymous with the Gershwin character Sportin’ Life, and dancer and singer Marie Bryant, who did both in the short film Jammin’ the Blues, had worked with Ellington on Jump for Joy.

They weren’t enough. Columnist George Clarke wrote that Twilight Alley “came in for a pretty general shellacking,” and one of the critics was Ellington himself. The Duke was in Boston on December 1 to play a concert at Symphony Hall with Django Reinhart. He remained in Boston, and wrote in Music Is My Mistress that he attended a matinee, and afterwards told the crew the show was too long, the orchestra too loud, and some elements in the staging wouldn’t even be found in a high-school play!

The producers altered the show. It was shortened, songs were changed, and director Houseman was replaced by Nicholas Ray, in what was his only stage production. Playwright and director George Abbott was called in as a script doctor, and he promptly fired Libby Holman and replaced her with Bernice Parks. And between Boston and New York, the name was changed to Beggar’s Holiday.

Little of Ellington-LaTouche music is known today. Duke recorded Brown Penny and Maybe I Should Change My Ways. Lena Horne had success with Tomorrow Mountain, and various singers have recorded Take Love Easy. But The Scrimmage of Life? Ore from a Gold Mine? Quarrel for Three?

And here is an invaluable look at the programme for the original production of Beggar's Holiday...