“We like to take our audiences to unexpected and surprising places,” as Third Avenue Playhouse’s co-artistic director James Valcq explains, and that is quite easily the case with TAP’s second production of their ongoing summer-fall season.
No one alive today would have seen in its initial Broadway run, for that was in 1910. Nor will most attendees have ever heard the work’s most prominent musical numbers: “Every Little Movement,” “Put Your Arms Around Me, Honey,” “I Don’t Care” and “Oh! You Beautiful Doll.” But such is the wonder of rediscovery, and live theater—musical or otherwise—is a perfect venue for such rediscovery. Madame Sherry was a standout hit back in 1910, and its songs were recorded by some of the most popular singing artists. Perhaps it’s worth a look?
“Every Little Movement,” for example, was a number one hit for four weeks for balladeer Harry MacDonough. “Harry who?” you ask. Just a singer who happens to be one of the greatest recording stars of his era; he posted no less than 99 top-10 records throughout his career—way, way more than most of today’s Top-40 recording artists.
“Put Your Arms Around Me, Honey” was even more widely recorded. In 1911, three different versions were hits. The most famous of all comedy singing teams, Arthur Collins and Byron Harlan, had a number one hit for five weeks with it; the most popular of all female pre-1920 singers, Ada Jones, took it to number five; and That Girl Quartet—one of the first female vocal groups to record—had a number six hit with it. Decades later, the song reemerged; “Put Your Arms” went to number four for Dick Kuhn and His Orchestra in 1942, and one of the ’40s’ finest ballad singers, Dick Haymes, took the song to number five on the music charts the following year.
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So Madame Sherry, with book and lyrics by Otto Harbach and music by Karl Hoschna, was no critical and popular slouch by any means—only time has marched on, and time is not often kind to even the finest works. But this song, comedy and dance-filled musical has much to say to us even more than a century after its premiere, so why not revisit it, reintroduce it to modern audiences and even, as TAP says it’s done, “put a bit of 21st-century polish on this delightful gem?”
Madame Sherry runs July 28 through Sept. 3 at Third Avenue Playhouse, 239 N. Third Ave., Sturgeon Bay. Call 920-743-1760 or visit thirdavenueplayouse.com for further information.
