Theatrical Songs of the 1940s Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered

Running for 374 performances on Broadway, "Pal Joey" had lyrics by Lorenz Hart and music by Richard Rogers. It was based on a novel of the same name by John O'Hara. The title character of Joey was somewhat unusual for musicals of the time in that he was not clearly a hero and not clearly a villain. He is a nightclub emcee who is more weak than mean.

"Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" appears twice in "Pal Joey", once in the first act and once in the second act. The song is performed by Vera (portrayed by Vivienne Segal) describing her affair with Joey. Several popular covers of the song have been recorded over the years including by Doris Day, Bill Snyder, and Rod Stewart and Cher.

"I'm wild again, beguiled again / A simpering, whimpering child again / Bewitched, bothered and bewildered - am I"

Answer: My Ship

"Lady in the Dark" ran for 467 performances, with music by Kurt Weill and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. The main character, Liza Elliott, is an unhappy woman who is undergoing psychoanalysis. The structure of the musical is unusual in that nearly all of the songs appear in three blocks (two in the first act and one in the second act). These blocks represent her attempts to analyze three dreams that she has had.

"My Ship" is outside of the three dreams. It is performed by Liza (portrayed by Gertrude Lawrence in the original Broadway cast) as the finale to Act Two (and of the show). The song even helps Liza to decide which of two suitors she should choose when one of them is able to help her remember the words to a melody that has been haunting her throughout the show.

"My ship has sails that are made of silk, / The decks are trimmed with gold, / And of jam and spice there's a paradise in the hold."

Answer: Wait 'Til You See Her

Running for 427 performances, "By Jupiter" was the final collaboration of Richard Rodgers (music) and Lorenz Hart (lyrics). The plot of the show features a group of Greek soldiers (led by Theseus and Hercules) who invade the land of the Amazons (fearsome female warriors), but are captured by them.

"Wait 'Til You See Her" was performed in the show by Theseus (portrayed by Ronald Graham) and the chorus. The song describes his growing romance with Antiope (portrayed by Constance Moore). Covers of the song have been made by artists such as Vic Damone, Ella Fitzgerald, and Johnny Hartman.

"Wait till you see her, see how she looks / Wait till you hear her laugh / Painters of paintings, writer of books / Never could tell the half"

Answer: Oh What a Beautiful Morning

"Oklahoma!" (1943) ran for 2,122 performances (at the time a Broadway record) and had lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein and music by Richard Rodgers. The show is set in the territory that would become the state of Oklahoma shortly before statehood. The musical represents an example of a script where songs and dances are integrated with the story in a way that was far less common several decades before that. It was also the first collaboration of Rodgers and Hammerstein.

In the song, cowboy Curly McLain (portrayed by Alfred Drake) is anticipating a visit to farm girl Laurey Williams (Joan Roberts). Appearing in the first scene of the first act, it has been described as the first Rodgers and Hammerstein song heard by the general public. Artists as diverse as Ray Charles, Bing Crosby, and James Taylor would later record covers of the song.

"Oh what a beautiful morning, / Oh what a beautiful day, / I've got a wonderful feeling, / Everything's going my way."

Answer: New York, New York

Leonard Bernstein wrote the music and Betty Comden and Adolph Green wrote the lyrics for "On the Town", which ran for 462 performances on Broadway. The musical is set during World War 2 and follows the adventures of three US Navy sailors (Ozzy, Chip,and Gabey) who have twenty-four hours of shore leave in New York City.

In "New York, New York" the three sailors excitedly describe the town in which they have shore leave. John Battles portrayed Gabey, Cris Alexander portrayed Chip, and Adolph Green portrayed Ozzy in the original Broadway cast. The song would be reprised by the whole cast as the finale to "On the Town".

"New York, New York, a helluva town / The Bronx is up, but the Battery's down / The people ride in a hole in the groun' / New York, New York, it's a helluva town!"

Answer: You'll Never Walk Alone

"Carousel" (1945) ran for 890 performances and featured music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein. The musical was adapted from the 1909 play "Liliom". Set in Maine, the core story is the troubled romance between carousel barker Billy Bigelow and mill worker Julie Jordan. A now-controversial part of the musical is how domestic violence is portrayed.

"You'll Never Walk Alone" is sung by Julie's cousin, Nettie Fowler (portrayed by Christine Johnson in the original Broadway cast) in the second act. In the scene, Billy has just died during a robbery attempt and Julie is wondering how she will support herself and her unborn child. The song is reprised by the whole cast as the finale to Act Two (and the show). The song later became the official anthem of Liverpool Football Club.

"Walk on, walk on / With hope in your heart / And you'll never walk alone / You'll never walk alone"

Answer: There's No Business Like Show Business

"Annie Get Your Gun" ran for 1,147 and had music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. The show is based on the life of Annie Oakley, including her time in "Buffalo Bill's Wild West" and her relationship with husband Frank Butler.The cast was led by Ethel Merman as Annie Oakley and Ray Middleton as Frank Butler.

"There's No Business Like Show Business" was performed by the cast twice, once partway through the first act and again as the finale of the second act. In context of the musical, the cast uses the song to help convince Annie Oakley to join Buffalo Bill's show. In the 1954 film version of the musical, Ethel Merman herself sings the song.

"There's no business like show business / Like no business I know / Everything about it is appealing / Everything the traffic will allow / Nowhere could you get that happy feeling / When you are stealing / That extra bow"

Answer: Old Devil Moon

Burton Lane wrote the music and E. Y. Harburg wrote the lyrics for "Finian's Rainbow" which ran for 725 performances. Finian McLonergan and his daughter Sharon have brought a stolen pot of leprechaun gold from Ireland to the US south to plant it near the Fort Knox gold depository. While there Sharon falls in love with local Union leader Woody Mahoney.

Sharon (portrayed by Ella Logan) and Woody (Donald Rogers) perform "Old Devil Moon" in the show. They use the song to discuss the moon and their attraction to each other. They perform the song first in the first act and reprise the song near the beginning of the second act. The song has been covered by various artists including Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme, and Judy Garland.

"It's that old devil moon / That you stole from the skies / It's that old devil moon in your eyes"

Answer: Wunderbar

"Kiss Me, Kate" had music and lyrics by Cole Porter and ran for 1,077 performances in its initial Broadway run. The storyline has elements of a "show within a show" as many of the characters are also involved in a production of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew". The stormy relationship of the characters sometimes matches the struggles of the characters in the Shakespearean play.

"Wunderbar" is performed in the show by Fred Graham (portrayed by Alfred Drake) and Lilli Vanessi (played by Patricia Morrison). The characters are now divorced but recall the show in which they met, which included the song "Wunderbar". The song appears in the first act. In 1998, the Original Cast Recording of "Kiss Me, Kate" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

"Wunderbar, wunderbar! / There's our fav'rite star above. / What a bright, shining star, / Like our love, it's wunderbar!"

Answer: Some Enchanted Evening

With 1,925 performances, "South Pacific" had lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein and music by Richard Rodgers. It was loosely based on stories from "Tales of the South Pacific" by James Michener. The main storyline shows the developing (though not without challenges) romance between Emile de Becque, a plantation owner on an island and Nellie Forbush, a nurse in the US Navy. Racial prejudice is also explored as a theme in the musical.

Emile (portrayed in the original Broadway cast by Ezio Pinza) performs the song "Some Enchanted Evening". In the song, he expresses to Nellie how he fell in love with her the first time that they met. In addition to appearing earlier in the first act, the song is also used as the finale for Act One. The "South Pacific" cast album was the most popular-selling album in the US for the 1940s.

"Some enchanted evening, you may see a stranger, / You may see a stranger across a crowded room, / And somehow you know, you know even then, / That somehow you'll see her again and again."