No, No, Nanette Question

[Horton]

Posted: 6/23/06 at 7:54am

I cant figure out how old Nanette is supposed to be just from reading the No, No, Nanette libbretto. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[ChrisLovesShows]

Posted: 6/23/06 at 8:55am

I think Nanette is teenaged. Stageagent.com suggests an actress 15 - 23. (Beware pop-up ads at that website.)
No, No, Nanette

[jerseyboyslover]

Posted: 6/23/06 at 10:54am

Yeah I think she is in her teens like 18 or 19.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 6/23/06 at 11:32am

I've directed the show. Nanette is supposed to be 18. Tom, her boyfriend is a few years older.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 6/23/06 at 11:32am

I've directed the show. Nanette is supposed to be 18. Tom, her boyfriend is a few years older.

[jerseyboyslover]

Posted: 6/23/06 at 11:38am

I would love to see it on broadway, I loved the movie.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 6/23/06 at 6:22pm

Nanette is Jimmy's ward so she would be his repsonsibility until age 21. Because she accepts Tom's marriage proposal we can assume she is over 18.


Which movie version? I understand the 1930 film is lost. The 1940 film is rarely shown. (Neither is faithful to teh plot or sore of teh stage show.) The 1950 film TEA FOR TWO strays even further afield.

[jerseyboyslover]

Posted: 6/23/06 at 11:33pm

It's the 1940's one. I saw it on movieflix.com.
here is the link to the movie http://www.movieflix.com/movie_info.mfx?movie_id=1744

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 6/24/06 at 12:00am

The only good version of NO NO NANETTE, imo, is the 1971 revival version. It's a very special show to me, as I was involved with the first tour of that version.

[inlovewithjerryherman]

Posted: 6/24/06 at 1:06am

This show (the 1971 incarnation) is one of my all-time favorite guilty pleasures.

So cute, and WHAT a score.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 6/24/06 at 1:17am

Hey Johnboy2, were you part of the tour when it came up to Canada? I worked the show at The National Arts Center and O'Keefe Center in Toronto. Great touring production.

The 71 version was so colorful, with the Raoul Pene de Bois sets and costumes.

And Louise Brown was 20 when she played the title role in London in the 1920's, so age 18-19 is about right.

[sondheimboy2]

Posted: 6/24/06 at 3:03am

If you can, find Don Dunn's "The Making of No, No, Nanette." You will devour it in one sitting reading about how the original '20's version came about and about how Cyma Rubin screwed Harry Rigby out of the millions that the revival made.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 6/24/06 at 3:07am

Harry had the last laugh. He made a different fortune on "Irene" and "Sugarbabies" and someone told me that Cyma went to prison for tax evasion (but that may just be wishful thinking).

Updated On: 6/24/06 at 03:07 AM

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 6/24/06 at 3:10am

Is Cyma Rubin still alive?

[allofmylife]

Posted: 6/24/06 at 3:18am

Was she ever?

[alterego]

Posted: 6/24/06 at 9:07am

I don't think Cyma Rubin went to prison for tax evasion. Wasn't that Adel Holzer who was involved (among other things) the stage version of The Ritz.?

Who starred in the tour of No, No, Nanette. Updated On: 6/24/06 at 09:07 AM

[Smaxie]

Posted: 6/24/06 at 11:19am

"Guilty pleasure" implies that something you like is not very good, but you like it anyway. And the '71 Nanette is just about perfection in design, choreography, performance, orchestrations and dance arrangements. Also too, courtesy of the sense of humor of director Burt Shevelove, it had a very sly ironic sense which you can hear in the slightly stilted quality of the line delivery in the Finalettos. It's a bit of a wink, as if to say, "Do you believe this?" without ever being obnoxious about it. It does what Drowsy Chaperone THINKS its doing...

[sondheimboy2]

Posted: 6/24/06 at 12:35pm

I don't know if Cyma Rubin went to prizon for tax evasion (as Adela Holzer did), but "No, No, Nanette" was the only hit that she had.

After that she did "Dr. Jazz" and a couple of "No, No, Nanette"-esque revivals. None of the revivals ever made it to Broadway, unless you consider having your window card on the wall at Joe Allen's to be "making it to Broadway." (Is Joe Allen's still around anymore?)

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 6/24/06 at 12:36pm

No, No, Horton

[allofmylife]

Posted: 6/24/06 at 12:39pm

Alterego, you may be right and since wishing won't make it so, I'm going to try to edit my original statement.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 6/24/06 at 12:55pm

A few months ago the students of the musical theatre program at nearby Sheridan College did NO NO NANETTE (1971 version) and it was a delight.

This opened just after THE BOY FRIEND played Toronto, but BOY FRIEND loses steam and starts to rely too much on the tap routines. NANETTE has only two major tap sequences (I Want to Be Happy in Act One, and Tea For Two in Act Two.)

These same students also did an excellent COMPANY last fall and a really good FALSETTOS in the spring proving they could handle traditional as well as modern musical theatre styles.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 6/24/06 at 1:56pm

allofmylife, I did not do any shows in Canada. I was in the tour with Penny Singleton and, for a while, Arthur Lake.

[alterego]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 9:22am

Who are Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake? johnboy2 Was the tour you were in the 1971 staging, sets and costumes?

frontrowcentre2, Tea for Two was not a tap routine in the 1971 presentation of NANETTE.

<< Cyd Charise in NO, NO, NANETTE (Take A Little One Step) Melbourne 1972.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 9:41am

Yes, the tour was a replica of the Broadway production. In fact, Penny did the Broadway production for a while. Penny and Arthur were Blondie and Dagwood, in the film series.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 4:22pm

Neat piece of trivia. I believe No No Nanette was the first musical to have a sequal (and yet it flopped like a sack of worms). It was called YES YES YVETTE. Shame it flopped. The cast included Jeanette McDonald and Jack Whiting, both huge tlents in their time).