#1
Posted: 6/24/14 at 1:06pm
The bandleader Vince Giordano said that when he dialed the number, he figured it was little more than a Hail Mary pass. But that simple phone call solved the mystery.
The mystery was what had happened to the music for “La Revue des Ambassadeurs,” a lost Cole Porter show that was staged in Paris in mid-1928 with singers, dancers, the bandleader Fred Waring, a cast that included Clifton Webb and Morton Downey and, remarkably, George Gershwin at the piano on opening night.
“La Revue” was a frothy nightclub concoction that was soon forgotten, eclipsed by Porter’s first Broadway hit a few months later. Porter scholars had long assumed that the orchestra parts from “La Revue” had disappeared, and that the show would never be heard again.
But the missing music has been found, along with a previously unknown number, “Rippling Stream.” The show, retitled “The Ambassador Revue,” will be staged for the first time in this country on Friday at 8 p.m. at Town Hall with Mr. Giordano and his Nighthawks and a cast that includes Amy Burton, Anita Gillette, Jason Graae, Ted Levy, Catherine Russell and Tom Wopat. The choreography will be by Randy Skinner.
NY Times: Cole Porter’s Lost Show Unearthed
The mystery was what had happened to the music for “La Revue des Ambassadeurs,” a lost Cole Porter show that was staged in Paris in mid-1928 with singers, dancers, the bandleader Fred Waring, a cast that included Clifton Webb and Morton Downey and, remarkably, George Gershwin at the piano on opening night.
“La Revue” was a frothy nightclub concoction that was soon forgotten, eclipsed by Porter’s first Broadway hit a few months later. Porter scholars had long assumed that the orchestra parts from “La Revue” had disappeared, and that the show would never be heard again.
But the missing music has been found, along with a previously unknown number, “Rippling Stream.” The show, retitled “The Ambassador Revue,” will be staged for the first time in this country on Friday at 8 p.m. at Town Hall with Mr. Giordano and his Nighthawks and a cast that includes Amy Burton, Anita Gillette, Jason Graae, Ted Levy, Catherine Russell and Tom Wopat. The choreography will be by Randy Skinner.
NY Times: Cole Porter’s Lost Show Unearthed
