Broadway Musical Chairs Trivia Quiz

Answer: Grease

"Grease" opened on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theater. The original cast was Barry Bostwick (Brad from "Rocky Horror Picture Show") as Danny Zuko, Carole Demas ("The Magic Garden") as Sandy and Adrienne Barbeau ("Maude's" daughter Carol) as Rizzo. The plot was about 'greasers', or teenagers of the 1950s: their trials, tribulations and love lives.

The students all attended Rydell High and, even then, there were distinct classes, e.g., jocks, the bad boys and the nerds; for girls you were either a 'good' girl or a 'pink lady'.

The deuteragonists were Kenickie who was Danny's best friend and Kenickie's sometime girlfriend, head of the "Pink Ladies", Rizzo.

Answer: West Side Story

The mid 1950s was also the setting for "West Side Story" which appeared on Broadway in 1957. This production was 'borne' from some great artists, i.e., book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, choreography by Jerome Robbins and original plot by William Shakespeare.

They (well, not Shakespeare) had wanted James Dean for the lead, but he died in 1955. The Broadway leads of Tony and Maria were performed by Larry Kert and Carol Lawrence, while Riff and Bernardo were the leaders of the Jets and the Sharks, respectively. "Romeo and Juliet" meets the Upper West Side.

Answer: Li'l Abner

Al Capp's comic strip comes alive with the 1956 Broadway production of "L'il Abner". An unknown singer, Peter Palmer, portrayed 'Li'l Abner' on the stage (and later in the film). Daisy Mae ('Daisy Duke' way before the "Dukes of Hazzard") was played by Edie Adams (wife of Ernie Kovacs).

The play took place in Dogpatch, U.S.A. and was a satire, not only on hillbillies but on the Federal government as well. The play opens with Marryin' Sam leading a celebration of Dogpatch's founder, Jubilation T. Cornpone, a bumbling Confederate general who, inadvertently, did more to help the North than the South.

Answer: Carousel

The original production of "Carousel" opened on Broadway on April 19, 1945. It was Rodgers and Hammerstein's second collaboration; "Oklahoma" was the first. The play was adapted from Molnar's "Liliom" with the setting changed from Budapest to the coast of Maine (Jessica Fletcher territory).

The leads were Billy Bigelow, a carnival barker, and his girlfriend, millworker Julie Jordan. John Raitt (Bonnie's father) was Billy and Jan Clayton ("Lassie's" mother) was Julie. The play was not your typical light-hearted musical; Billy finds out that Julie is pregnant and decides to join his friend in a robbery to provide for the child, but all does not go well!

Answer: My Fair Lady

Composers Lerner and Lowe had their musical "My Fair Lady" open on Broadway on April 2, 1956. Based on George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion", the show starred the familiar names of Rex Harrison as Henry Higgins and Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolittle. Professor Higgins' friend and fellow phoneticist, Colonel Hugh Pickering, was played by Robert Coote. I doubt that there are very many who do not know the plot, but to review: Higgins bets Pickering that he can turn an unrefined Cockney flower girl into a lady, and so he does. "The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain".

But when Eliza leaves, Higgins realizes that "He's grown accustomed to her face".

Answer: Paint Your Wagon

Another Lerner and Lowe Musical, "Paint Your Wagon" opened at the Shubert Theater on November 12, 1951. Ben Rumson was the protagonist and grizzled, old miner in Gold Rush era, California. His daughter, Jennifer, finds gold near their camp and finds love with Julio, a Mexican prospector. Jennifer goes East to 'get some schooling', but when she returns, all she finds is a ghost town with broken people and broken dreams, all moving on to the next dream. Ben Rumson was played by James Barton and Jennifer was the stage debut for Olga San Juan. Among the beautiful songs are: "I Talk to the Trees" and "They Call the Wind Mariah".

Answer: Chicago

The musical "Chicago" opened on Broadway on June 3, 1975, with Chita Rivera as Velma Kelly, Gwen Verdon as Roxie Hart and Jerry ("Law and Order") Orbach as slick Chicago lawyer, Billy Flynn. It opens in prison where we find Velma and Roxie on Death Row.

It seems Velma killed her husband and her sister when she found them in bed together; Roxie killed her boyfriend when she discovered he wasn't going to make her famous. It's 1920s Chicago, and Velma had been a star, while married housewife Roxie had had dreams of becoming one.

They are both introduced to the predatory Billy Flynn who has the best record of getting women prisoners exonerated...for a price!

Answer: Guys and Dolls

Frank Loesser's musical "Guys and Dolls", based on Damon Runyon's stories about Broadway gamblers, opened on November 24th 1950 and became a huge hit. The plot revolves around Sky Masterson who tries to 'woo' a Salvation Army type missioner, Sarah Brown, in order to win a $1,000 bet (it was the 1950s!). Sky's buddy, Nathan Detroit, is the founder of "the oldest established, permanent, floating crap game in New York". Nathan has also been dating his showgirl fiance, Adelaide, for 14 years. Robert Alda was Sky and Sam Levene was Nathan but, while some actors changed for the movie, Miss Adelaide was always the brilliant Vivian Blaine.

Answer: Rent

"How do you measure a year in the life?" If it's the musical "Rent", you measure two decades since the show opened on Broadway on April 29, 1996. Jonathan Larson's play won both a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize for its depiction of a group of young New Yorkers living in the East Village and struggling with money, their careers, their love lives and the AIDS epidemic in their community.

This was NOT your mother's musical! The play was based on Puccini's "La Boheme", but updated to modern life. Daphne Rubin-Vega made her Broadway debut as Mimi, a Hispanic-American club dancer and drug addict.

She is Benny's ex-lover, Roger's current lover, and an HIV victim.

Answer: Hair

The show "Hair" 'broke out' on Broadway on April 29, 1968. It was a reflection of the culture of the times, e.g., the Vietnam War, the generation gap and "long beautiful hair". It broke new ground as a rock musical which dealt with nudity, sexual themes, irreverence and 'hippies' living in New York in the "Age of Aquarius". Claude Hooper Bukowski is a naive young man from Oklahoma who comes to New York before his enlistment into the Army.

He meets a bunch of hippies, led by George Berger, who are begging for change (both literally and metaphorically).

He becomes a member of the "tribe", as they try to dissuade him from becoming a soldier.