From Broadway To 52nd Street
Anything Goes opened at the Alvin Theater on November 21, 1934 and had a run of 420 performances. Cole Porter wrote the music for the show and it featured such stars as Ethel Merman, William Gaxton and Bettina Hall. From the musical I Get A Kick Out Of You is singled out for fame and applause as a jazz standard.
The Story: Reno Sweeney, an evangelist turned bar hostess gets such a kick out of Billy Crocker that she boards a Europe bound liner to dissuade him from pursuing Hope Harcourt. Crocker, aboard without a ticket must adopt several disguises. Hope loves an Englishman of her peer. Rev. Dr. Moon is on J. Edgar Hoover’s public enemy list at #13 and attempting to rise to #1. Reno holds a revival; Hope becomes an heiress, drops her Englishman and consents to marry Crocker. Moon gets dropped from Hoover’s list.
Broadway History: In the 1900-01 season there were seventy plays or musicals being produced on Broadway. It was the beginning of the boom and the decades that followed saw the number of plays produced quadruple. In addition, there were seven vaudeville houses and six burlesque theaters presenting their shows to a theatre thirsty population of just over three and a half million inhabitants.
The first decade of the 20th century was both boring and transformational in the history of Broadway. The seeds of that transformation go back to 1882 with the construction of The Madison Square Theatre at 24th Street. At the time, the theatre district was concentrated between Union Square and 24th Street.
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