Three Sisters (1934)

Music by Jerome Kern,
Lyrics and Book by Oscar Hammerstein II

Playbill Notes

1934 - Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's Three Sisters opens at London's Royal Drury Lane, where Show Boat, enjoyed a hit run six years earlier. The stars are popular British favorites Adele Dixon (as Dorrie), Stanley Holloway (as Eustace), Esmond Knight (as Gypsy) and American musical comedy star Charlotte Greenwood (as Tiny). Curiously some booing is heard sprinkled among the opening night "bravos." The reviews are decidedly mixed: everyone is delighted by the score ("exquisite" being the most freqient adjective), but the english papers uniformly seem almost offended by the efforts of two Americans to tell such a decidedly English story. Broadway critics covering the opening, however, cable back to New York word of a SMASH HIT.

Unfortunately the show closes after 72 performances and the anticipated American production never happens.

1995 - Perparing Three Sisters for its long-awaited American premiere was a major reconstuction effort for 42nd Street Moon. Initially, only an early, pre-rehearsal script was located at the Rodgers and Hammerstein library. Finally, in September, we located a final production script in the files of the Censor's Office in London--but at 200 pages, judicious pruning was needed to bring the epic down to a reasonable running time. Out went much specialty material for Charlotte Greenwood and Stanley Holloway. Also, an epilogue--showing all the characters in 1924 enjoying a holiday on the Thames--ultimately seemed irrelevant (although we lose the information that Mary and her daughter have joined Gypsy and George on the road).

Musically, things were equally difficult. No score for Three Sisters exists. A handful of songs were published in sheet music, and several more were recorded either in their entierty or in medleys. Musical director Sam Schieber transcribed these songs , and wrote vocal arrangements for all the chorus numbers. Music is missing for five songs, Four of these we deleted; for the fifth, "The Gaiety Chorus Girls," Sam wrote music to Oscar Hammerstein's lyrics. "When I've Got the Moon" written by Kern and Hammerstein for an unproduced film was interlopated to replace some of the missing material. With these hurdles overcome, we hope you will join us in celebrating at long last the American arrival of Three Sisters.

Plot Summary

Not based on Chekhov's work, this Three Sisters follows three very different siblings through their romantic adventures during the first two decades of the century.

Press Release

SAN FRANCISCO (10 October 1995) -- San Francisco audiences will be the first in the U.S. to see a little-known Hammerstein & Kern musical when 42nd St. Moon's Lost Musical Series presents the American premiere of Three Sisters as part of its HAMMERSTEIN & HART Centennial Festival. In a musical theater coup, 42nd Street Moon is the first company ever to be given the rights to Three Sisters by the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization since the original 1934 London production. The show takes its U.S. bow November 10 - 26, 1995 at the New Conservatory Theatre, 25 Van Ness Ave. in San Francisco (Preview: November 9, 1995).

Considered by his biographer, Gerald Bordman, to be one of Jerome Kern's greatest scores, Three Sisters introduced standards such as "Lonely Feet" and "I Won't Dance", later made famous by Fred Astaire in Roberta. The score also included gems such as "Hand in Hand" and "What Good Are Words?", both of which haven't been heard for 60 years.

Not based on Chekhov's work, this Three Sisters follows three very different siblings through their romantic adventures during the first two decades of the century. The three girls hold different marital aspirations, with the eldest sister, a great galumphing girl named Tiny, in love with a sturdy constable; Dorrie, the middle child dreaming of marriage to a wealthy man; and the youngest, Mary, smitten by a young busker named Gypsy Hood. Marriages, mistaken identities and World War I ensue, with the girls' hapless photographer father trying to manage it all.

Premiering April 9, 1934 at the Drury Lane Theater in London, Three Sisters was mounted with the intention of bringing it to the states after a successful London run, but mixed reviews closed the show after two months -- at the time, the shortest run in the history of the Drury Lane Theater. Kern had worked previously in London with great success. Shows such as The Cabaret Girl, Beauty Prize and Blue Eyes, written with British lyricists and book writers such as P.G. Wodehouse, had been very well received by London critics and audiences alike. "Three Sisters was Kern's first production in London that was written with another American, Oscar Hammerstein, who wrote the lyrics and book," says 42nd Street Moon producer Greg MacKellan. According to MacKellan, "New York critics who traveled to London to see the show adored it, but London critics were less enthusiastic -- perhaps offended that two Americans would dare to write a musical with British characters and a British story." While David Fairweather of the U.S. magazine Theatre World wrote, "It is difficult to account for the failure of Three Sisters, for it is a charming, original production with by far the best music of any light opera within recent history," British critic W.A. Darlington sniffed "the music...is pleasant and cleverly handled, but not original."

The original production featured British stars Stanley Holloway and Adele Dixon, along with Broadway favorite Charlotte Greenwood. To the delight of audiences, the cast also included a gaggle of live geese. In the ongoing war of words between London and New York about the show and the savvy (or lack thereof) of London audiences, an amused New York writer, Wilella Waldorf of the New York Post wrote, "It is astonishing what a furor that flock of real geese seems to have created. Can it be that London is devoid of animal life on its stages? Over here, of course, we are hardened to back yard displays."

MacKellan and co-producer Stephanie Rhoads started with a pre-production script, but have since tracked down the one used right before the show opened. (The absolute final version which had a few small revisions has yet to be found.) Dated March of 1934, the script with which 42nd Street Moon is working was found in the archives of the British Censor and sent on microfilm to Rhoads and MacKellan. Says Rhoads, "In the 1930s everything had to be approved by the Censor's Office, so it's an archival gold mine."

Rhoads, Lesley Hamilton and Caroline Altman will hit the boards as the three sisters, Tiny, Dorrie and Mary, with Sean Sharp as their father, Will Barbour. Rhoads just finished a role as Professor Charlotte Kenyon in Good News at Woodminster Amphitheater and has been seen recently in 42nd Street Moon productions of Nobody's Heart, a cabaret evening of Lorenz Hart songs, and in 42nd Street Moon's season opener, A Connecticut Yankee. Hamilton has performed numerous times with 42nd Street Moon including the role of evil queen Morgan LeFay in A Connecticut Yankee and a Texas landowner in last season's Something for the Boys. Altman made her 42nd Street Moon debut in Very Warm for May. Portraying Mary's love interest "Gypsy Hood" will be Scott Grinthal, seen in 42nd Street Moon's production of Once in a Blue Moon and in The Big Broadcast at the Presidio. Bill Fahrner, who will portray Gypsy's co-hort George, recently performed in 42nd Street Moon productions of Very Warm for May and A Connecticut Yankee. Rounding out the cast will be Martin Beal as a local constable, Lori Leigh Gieleghem as an aristocrat, Joseph Lustig as a suitor and Lois Saunders as a pub owner. MacKellan will direct, with musical direction provided by Sam Scheiber who served as musical director for Very Warm for May. Barbara Bernardo will choreograph.