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''Oh, Boy!'' is a musical in two acts, with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse. The story concerns befuddled George, who elopes with Lou Ellen, the daughter of Judge Carter. He must win over her parents and his Quaker aunt. His dapper polo champion friend Jim is in love with madcap actress Jackie, but George must hide her while she extricates herself from a scrape with a bumbling constable whom she punched at a party raid. The piece was the most successful of the "Princess Theatre Musicals", opening in February 1917 and transferring to the Casino Theatre in November 1917 to finish its Broadway run of 463 performances. A London production, under the title ''Oh, Joy!'' opened in January 1919 at the Kingsway Theatre, where it ran for 167 performances. A silent film version was also produced in 1919. ==Background== Early in the 20th century, American musical theatre consisted of a mix of elaborate European operettas, like ''The Merry Widow'' (1907), British musical comedy imports, like''The Arcadians'' (1910), George M. Cohan's shows, American operettas, like those of Victor Herbert, ragtime-infused American musicals, and the spectacular revues of Florenz Ziegfeld and others. But as Cohan's and Herbert's creative output waned, new creative talent was being nurtured on Broadway, including Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin and Sigmund Romberg. Kern began by revising British musicals to suit American audiences, adding songs that "have a timeless, distinctly American sound that redefined the Broadway showtune."〔Kenrick, John. ("History of The Musical Stage 1910-1919: Part I", ''Musicals 101.com: The Cyber Encyclopedia of Musical Theatre, TV and Film'' ), accessed May 27, 2008〕 The Princess Theatre was a simply designed, 299-seat Broadway theatre that had failed to attract successful productions because of its small size.〔Bloom and Vlastnik, pp. 230–31〕 Theatre agent Elisabeth Marbury asked Kern and Bolton to write a series of musicals specifically tailored to its smaller setting, with an intimate style and modest budgets, that would provide an alternative to the star-studded extravaganzas of Ziegfeld and others. Kern and Bolton's first Princess Theatre musical was ''Nobody's Home'' (1915), an adaptation of a London show called ''Mr. Popple of Ippleton''. Their second was an original musical called ''Very Good Eddie'' (1915). The little show ran for 314 performances on a modest budget.〔 British humorist and lyricist/playwright P. G. Wodehouse had supplied some lyrics for ''Very Good Eddie'' but now joined the team at the Princess.〔 ''Oh, Boy!'', like the first two Princess Theatre shows, featured modern American settings and simple scene changes (one set for each act) to more aptly suit the small theatre, eschewing operetta traditions of foreign locales and elaborate scenery.〔 The authors deliberately attempted to have the humor flow from the plot situations, rather than from musical set pieces.〔Green, Stanley. (''Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre'' ), p. 315, Da Capo Press, 1980 ISBN 0-306-80113-2〕 In 1918, Dorothy Parker described in ''Vanity Fair'' how the Princess Theatre shows integrated story and music: "Bolton and Wodehouse and Kern are my favorite indoor sport. I like the way they go about a musical comedy. ... I like the way the action slides casually into the songs. ... I like the deft rhyming of the song that is always sung in the last act by two comedians and a comedienne. And oh, how I do like Jerome Kern's music."〔Parker, Dorothy. ''Vanity Fair'', ''quoted'' in Green, p. 110〕 It became the most successful of the Princess Theatre shows, and one of the first American musicals to be a success on the London stage. According to Bloom and Vlastnik, ''Oh, Boy!'' represents "the transition from the haphazard musicals of the past to the newer, more methodical modern musical comedy ... the libretto is remarkably pun-free and the plot is natural and unforced. Charm was uppermost in the creators' minds ... the audience could relax, have a few laughs, feel slightly superior to the silly undertakings on stage, and smile along with the simple, melodic, lyrically witty but undemanding songs". They call it good clean fun and "honest, non-ironic, hardworking theatre".〔 ''Oh, Boy!'' was first performed, as a tryout, in Schenectady, New York, before receiving its Broadway premiere on February 20, 1917 at the Princess Theatre. It ran for 463 performances (the last few months at the Casino Theatre), making it the third-longest running Broadway musical in the 1910s.〔 It was produced by William Elliott and F. Ray Comstock. Staging was by Edward Royce, with scenery by D. M. Aiken and costumes by Faibsey. A London production, under the title ''Oh, Joy!'' was produced by George Grossmith, Jr., containing some modified lyrics, and starring Beatrice Lillie as Jackie – her first role in a book musical. It opened on January 27, 1919 at the Kingsway Theatre, where it ran for 167 performances.〔Jasen, David A. (''P.G. Wodehouse: a portrait of a master'' ), p.78. Music Sales Group, 2002, ISBN 0-8256-7275-9〕 A silent film version was also produced in 1919. An anonymous admirer wrote a verse in praise of the musical's authors〔The poem is patterned after "Baseball's Sad Lexicon", about the Chicago Cubs' infield. See Frankos, Laura. ("Musical of the Month: ''Oh, Boy!''" ), New York Public Library, August 27, 2012, accessed September 11, 2015〕 that begins: :This is the trio of musical fame, :Bolton and Wodehouse and Kern. :Better than anyone else you can name :Bolton and Wodehouse and Kern.〔Steyn, Mark. "Musical debt to a very good Guy", ''The Times'', November 28, 1984, p. 12〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Oh, Boy! (musical)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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