''Wang'' is a
musical
Musical is the adjective of music.
Musical may also refer to:
* Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance
* Musical film
Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...
(the sheet music indicates "
comic opera
Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue.
Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...
") with music by
Woolson Morse and book and lyrics by
J. Cheever Goodwin. It was first produced in New York in 1891 by
DeWolf Hopper and his company and featured
Della Fox.
[Smith, Cecil Michener and Glenn Litton, ''Musical Comedy in America: From The Black Crook Through Sweeney Todd'' (London: Routledge, 1981), 55-57 .]
The show mixed comic opera material with
burlesque and was set in
Siam. The music does not have "Oriental" color, except for the title character's first entrance – on a "full scale imitation elephant" – and the wedding and coronation marches. The show was termed an "operatic
burletta" because of the burlesque convention of having Fox wearing tights.
[
]
Production history
''Wang'' premiered at the now-demolished Broadway Theatre
Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, American and British English spelling differences), many of the List of ...
, New York City, on May 4, 1891 and closed on October 3, 1891 after 151 performances. The cast featured Helen Beresford as Nannette, Della Fox as Mataya, DeWolf Hopper as Wang, Samuel Reed as Colonel Fracasse, Alfred Klein as Pepat, and Marion Singer as La Veuve Frimousse. A full-scale imitation elephant was built by Edward Siedle for Hopper to ride on during "The Man With an Elephant On His Hands."
The show was revived at the Lyric Theatre, running from April 18, 1904 through June 4, 1904, for 57 performances. The production was produced and directed by Sam S. Shubert and again starred Hopper and Singer, with Madge Lessing as Mataya.
Songs
The songs in ''Wang'' (according to the published music, which varies from the song list shown at th
Internet Broadway Database listing
for the 1891 production) are:
*A Pretty Girl, A Summer Night – Mataya
*Are Then The Vows –
*Ask the Man in the Moon – Wang, Mataya and Colonel Fracasse
*Baby, Baby, Dance My Darling Baby
*Eminent Regent Wang – Wang and Chorus
*Every Rose Must Have Its Thorn
*If You Love Me As I Love You? (duet) – Wang and La Veuve Frimousse
*Kissing Quartet
*The Man With an Elephant On His Hands – Wang
*Mary! Mary! Why So Contrary? – Gillette and Girls
*No Matter What Others May Say (trio)
*To Be a Lone Widow – La Veuve Frimousse
*Where Are You Going My Pretty Maid? (duet) – Mataya and Marie
The song "The Man with an Elephant on his Hands" was later adapted into an unlicensed and short-lived 1905 comic strip series by Everrett E. Lowry.
Stripper's Guide Blog
References
External links
*
Sheet music for A Pretty Girl, A Summer NightInternet Broadway Database listing, 1891 productionInternet Broadway Database listing, 1904 production
1891 musicals
Musicals set in Thailand
American musicals
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