From Hoy Polloi to Haute Monde

 "All I Owe Ioway!"

or something like that.

State Fair was the only Rodgers and Hammerstein musical

written specifically for film, 

the 1945 version which starred Jeanne Craine and Dana Andrews.

A staged version was done in 1969 with Tommy Tune (in St. Louis),

but the one in 1996 made it to Broadway,

with songs from other R&H shows

(Pipe Dream, Me & Juliet) added in.

Above, John Davidson, Ben Wright, Kathryn Crosby, and Andrea McArdle. 

State Fair was the last show that David Merrick produced.

                            

Irving Berlin's music and Moss Hart's book 

brought Face the Music to the stage in 1932,

smack dab in the middle of the Depression,

when times were so tough that the Astors

are hanging out at the Automat.

The Encores! revival of 2007

brought Walter Bobbie (below), Judy Kaye (below that!), 

Lee Wilkof (not below!),

Jeffry Denman (above),and Meredith Patterson (also above!)

together for a rematch. 

Much fun evidently ensued.

 We'll hear Jeffry and "Manhattan Madness!"

From Babes In Arms,
the 1990 studio cast recording,

we'll hear Judy Kaye with "Way Out West".

Judy is a Broadway perennial,

having debuted in Grease in 1970,

"overnight star"-ing when she replaced Madeline Kahn in

On The Twentieth Century.

From opera to acting to belting to award-winning...

she's done it all successfully.

 And if you're going with the Hoe-Down genre,

gotta have Nanette Fabray

with "Louisiana Hayride" from The Bandwagon.

Arthur Schwartz/Howard Dietz were the musical perpetrators. 

 [title of show] was

written by Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell

in about 3 weeks for a New York musical theatre festival,

and there they are above with Susan Blackwell and 

Heidi Blickenstaff.

It succeeded well enough to transfer to off and finally 

ON Broadway. 

The set is 4 different kinds of chairs,

and Larry who plays the keyboard back in the corner.

Below, Heidi and Hunter...with "Monkeys And Playbills".

From the 2011 revival of Anything Goes

with Colin Donnell and Sutton Foster,

we'll hear "You're The Top",

"Bon Voyage" and the finale.

Below, cutting capers with Joel Grey!

Above, the 1962 revival,

that starred Eileen Rodgers, Hal Linden, and

Kenneth Mars.

We'll hear Eileen (below)

with "Take Me Back To Manhattan"

originally from The New Yorkers,

but added to this revival.

Eileen debuted in Fiorello!,

and went on to do Tenderloin, 

played Reno Sweeney in Anything,

Kelly (an infamous flop, 1 performance?

I'm going to have to find THAT ONE!)

and made several television appearances in the 1960s.

Had to put this one in!
Ethel M and Frank S in a live 1954 television performance

of Anything Goes!

No love was lost between these two "divas"!