#the band wagon
Fred and Adele Astaire in The Band Wagon, which opened on Broadway on June 3, 1931. With songs by composer Arthur Schwartz and lyricist Howard Dietz, it was considered the greatest revue seen on Broadway. It was also the last show in which Fred and Adele appeared together, as she retired the following year.
Therefore, the creators decided that it would be more Fred’s show than Adele’s. This was a reverse of the usual arrangement, because Adele was the unquestioned star of the duo and Fred was essentially just her partner. He had one solo and she only appeared in duets.
Fred’s first duet, “Sweet Music,” was designed to showcase his musicianship. He played the accordion and danced with it strapped to his body. In his solo, “New Sun in the Sky,” he sang and danced while putting the finishing touches on his evening dress in a mirror–anticipating his famous “Top Hat, White Tie, and Tails” number in the film Top Hat. He was also given more stage time in the non-musical parts of the revue, which enabled him to expand beyond the “brotherly juvenile role” he had played in book musicals until then. In The Band Wagon, “he was seen, almost for the first time, not merely as Adele’s straight man but as a comedian in his own right and, what is more, a very capable actor, whose best asset was his intrinsic corporeal fluency.” (Kathleen Riley, The Astaires) The Herald Tribune declared he was “the individual triumph of the show,” and The New Yorker called him “one of the most valuable pieces of theatrical property in the business.”
The 1953 film with the same title, which starred Astaire and also featured songs by the team of Schwartz and Dietz, bears no relation whatever to the stage revue.
Photo: Vandamm via NYPL
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