William Gaxton

On stage 12 productions, 24 years

1922	Music Box Revue [1922-23] Music Box Theatre · Original · directed by Hassard Short	330 perf.
1927	A Connecticut Yankee Vanderbilt Theatre · Original · directed by Alexander Leftwich	418 perf.
1929	Fifty Million Frenchmen Lyric Theatre · Original · directed by Monty Woolley	254 perf.
1931	Of Thee I Sing Music Box · Original · directed by George S. Kaufman	441 perf.
1933	Let ‘Em Eat Cake Imperial Theatre · Original · directed by George S. Kaufman	90 perf.
1934	Anything Goes Alvin Theatre · Original · directed by Howard Lindsay	420 perf.
1936	White Horse Inn Center Theatre · Original · directed by Max Rivers	223 perf.
1938	Leave It to Me! Imperial Theatre · Original · directed by Samuel Spewack	291 perf.
1940	Louisiana Purchase Imperial Theatre · Original · directed by Edgar MacGregor	444 perf.
1942	Keep 'em Laughing 44th Street Theatre · Original · directed by Clifford Fischer	77 perf.
1945	Hollywood Pinafore Alvin Theatre · Original · directed by Douglas Coudy	52 perf.
1946	Nellie Bly Adelphi Theatre · Original · directed by Edward Caton	16 perf.

Each row is a staging this name appears in the cast list of, read from the production record rather than from the person record. The person record names works instead, and a work cannot say which run somebody was in. That is how Elaine Stritch ends up filed under Show Boat 1927 when she was in the 1994 revival. No row here says what part was played, because no cast list records it.

Worked with more than once12 names

Victor Moore	8 productions
George E. Mack	5 productions
Edward H. Robins	5 productions
Ralph Riggs	3 productions
John Walsh	3 productions
Drucilla Strain	3 productions
Zynaid Spencer	2 productions
Yvonne Gray	2 productions
Walter Armin	2 productions
Vivian Barry	2 productions
Veva Selwood	2 productions
Tom Curley	2 productions

Both names in the same cast list, more than once. It is not evidence of a partnership. A long-running company puts the same forty people together every night, but it is where one would start looking. 8 of these names are not links because we hold no record behind them; the name is set from the identifier and its punctuation may be wrong.

Also credited on1 work

Music Box Revue

These come off the person record, which names a work and not a production. So we can say this name is attached to the work and we cannot say which staging, or in what capacity. For a composer or a writer that is the whole career we hold; there is no cast list to find them in.

In the literature8 passages

• Reno Sweeney (Ethel Merman), an evangelist turned bar hostess, gets such a kick out of Billy Crocker (William Gaxton) that she boards a Europe-bound liner to dissuade him from pursuing Hope Harcourt (Bettina Hall). Although Billy dreams of Hope all through the night, Hope is determined to marry an English peer. Crocker has boarded without…Enchanted Evenings_The Broadway Musical from 'Show Boat' to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber - Geoffrey Block
• 4 . Brooks Atkinson, “The Play: ‘Anything Goes’ as Long as Victor Moore, Ethel Merman and William Gaxton Are Present,” New York Times , November 22, 1934, 26.Enchanted Evenings_The Broadway Musical from 'Show Boat' to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber - Geoffrey Block
• 40 . “Easy to Love,” Billy’s love song to Hope, dropped because of its difficulty for William Gaxton, also retains Reno’s half-note triplet in the midst of a chromatic line.Enchanted Evenings_The Broadway Musical from 'Show Boat' to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber - Geoffrey Block
• The original production starred William Gaxton (Wintergreen), Victor Moore (Throttlebottom), Lois Moran (Mary), Grace Brinkley (Diana), and Florenz Ames (The French Ambassador); the latter re-created his role for the 1952 revival. Gaxton and Moore reprised their roles for a brief return engagement at the Imperial Theatre on May 15, 1933,…Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals, The - Dan Dietz
• Cast: William Gaxton, Constance Carpenter, Nana Bryant, June Cochrane, William Norris, Jack ThompsonBroadway Musicals, Show By Show - Seventh Edition - Stanley Green & Cary Ginell
• The curtain rises on a hotel room in modern-day Hartford, where Martin (William Gaxton), about to be married, gets bopped on the head by his intended spouse. He dreams of being a stranger at the court of King Arthur, where he sings “Thou Swell” and “My Heart Stood Still” with Dame Alisande (Constance Carpenter), and becomes a confidant of…Broadway Musicals, Show By Show - Seventh Edition - Stanley Green & Cary Ginell

Passages naming this person, found by keyword across 178 books. A keyword match is not a biography, and a common name will pull in the wrong one.

What this page does not know

• What this person played. No cast list we hold records a character against a performer.
• Which of the credits above the roles on this record (actor) apply to. The roles sit on the person and never on a credit, so a director who also acted looks the same here as one who did not.