Redhead, 1959

The run closed March 19, 1960

Opened

February 5, 1959

Closed

March 19, 1960

Performances

452

Previews

Unknown

Theatre

Richard Rodgers Theatre

Of the 706 productions we hold that opened in the 1950s and carry a performance count, this is the 64th longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.

Who was in it53 named

John Aristides
Mame Dennis
Bob Dixon
Joan Fagan
Pat Ferrier
Lydia Fredericks
David Gold
Bette Graham
Dee Harless
Harvey Hohnecker
Reby Howells
Janie Janvier
Elizabeth Kerr
Elaine King
Kasimir Kokich
Lee Krieger
John Lankston
Larry Mitchell
Dale Moreda
Stan Page
Noel Parenti
Liane Plane
Shev Rodgers
Alton Ruff
Kelley Stephens
Dean Taliaferro
Burt Bier
Mary Burr
Dorothy Dushock
William Guske
Curtis Hood
Michael Mcaloney
Pat Mcennis
Donna Monroe
Connie Sharman
Ken Urmston
David Williams
Iva Withers

15 of these 53 names have a person record behind them and link to one. The other 38 are set from the identifier in the cast list, which is a slug of the name, so hyphens and full stops are lost and a few come out wrong. We hold nothing else about them. Nobody here is matched to a character: the cast list records who was in the company and not what they played.

Characters11 roles held

Gwen Verdon Essie Whimple
Richard Kiley Tom Baxter
Leonard Stone George Poppett
Doris Rich Sarah Simpson
Cynthia Latham Maude Simpson
William LeMassena Howard Cavanaugh
Ralph Sumpter Inspector White
Patrick Horgan Charles Willingham
Buzz Miller The Jailer
Pat Ferrier Ruth La Rue / Tilly
Joy Nichols May

These came out of a wiki table. The names arrived with the table's own cell markup on them and have been stripped back. They are not linked to person records because the identifiers in that table do not resolve to ours.

Creative team

Director

Bob Fosse

Choreographer

Bob Fosse

Producer

Robert Fryer & Lawrence Carr

Orchestrations

Philip J Lang 4

A producer is one string on this record, however many people or companies it names. Directors and choreographers are held both as text and as identifiers; where an identifier exists the name links to a page.

Tony Awards 1 from 1 nomination

Best Musical

Won

Recordings 1 held for the work

None of these is attributed to this staging. They are filed against Redhead, and nothing says which production any of them documents. Closing that join is the point of this catalogue and it is not closed yet.

Around this production

5 February: Redhead, starring Gwen Verdon with direction and choreography by Bob Fosse, premieres at the 46th Street Theater for a run of 452 performances. Historical Dictionary of the Broadway Musical Volume 22 William A Everett Paul R, p. 26

• Redhead seems to be the only Tony Award-winning musical no one knows about. It won eight awards, including Best Musical, but today even musical theatre aficionados consider it an also-ran. Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals the Dan Dietz, p. 751
• Although a London production and a film version by United Artists never materialized, the musical was produced in Mexico City at the Teatro de los Insurgentes on February 11, 1960; titled La Pelirroja, the musical starred Virma Gonzalez and the cast recording was released by RCA Victor (# MKL-1270). One of the delightf… Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals the Dan Dietz, p. 755
• The incidental music for the drama was composed by Albert Hague, whose first Broadway musical Plain and Fancy opened in 1955; in 1959 he won the Tony Award for Best Composer for his score for Redhead . Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals the Dan Dietz, p. 885
• They also turned out witty, character-driven libretti for Up in Central Park and Redhead (the first murder mystery musical). Broadway Musicals the 101 Greatest Shows of All Time Bloom Ken 1949 Vlastnik Fra, p. 21
• In four more Broadway shows, all with Fosse, Verdon owned Broadway: New Girl in Town (where she proved herself as a very fine dramatic actress), the murder-mystery musical Redhead (where she won her fourth Tony Award in seven years), Sweet Charity (where her over-the-shoulder stance became as famous as the Damn Yankees… Broadway Musicals the 101 Greatest Shows of All Time Bloom Ken 1949 Vlastnik Fra, p. 84

Passages naming this production, found by keyword across 178 books. Where it turns up in the literature, not curated notes about it.

What this page does not know

• No photograph of this staging.
• Which of the 1 recordings of Redhead document this run, if any.
• Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.