The Drama Nerds Database
Destry Rides Again

Destry Rides Again

Shows · Destry Rides Again

Hollywood’s classic Western had been filmed three times before David Merrick decided to turn the durable sagebrush saga into a Broadway musical. A whoopin’, shootin’, hollerin’ show, it starred Andy Griffith (in his only musical) as Thomas Jefferson Destry Jr., the violence-hating sheriff, and Dolores Gray as the peppery saloon entertainer known as Frenchy.

Opened
1959
Performances
473
Type
Musical
Era
Golden Age
Music: Harold RomeLyrics: Harold RomeBook: Leonard Gershe

Productions1 on Broadway

1959 Imperial Theatre Original. April 23, 1959 · Michael Kidd 472 performances

Every Broadway staging held in broadway-data, sourced to IBDB. West End runs are not yet held.

Recordings 1 album held

Licensing 2 entries

US Concord Theatricals Tams-Witmark available
UK Concord Theatricals Tams-Witmark available

Read from the licensor's own pages and catalogues. Rights move, and an empty row means we have not confirmed a publisher, not that the show cannot be licensed.

31 passages naming Destry Rides Again, found by keyword across 178 books. It's where this show turns up in the literature, not curated trivia about it.

Destry rides Again. An embarrassing moment when Destry accidentally tears off part of Frenchy’s dress. book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-seventh-edition-stanley-green-cary-ginell#p175

A revival of the musical at the Donmar Warehouse Theatre in London on September 30, 1982, was recorded by That’s Entertainment (LP # TER-1034); Jill Gascoine and Alfred Molina were the leads. book:complete-book-of-1950s-broadway-musicals-the-dan-dietz#p787

Dolores Gray and Andy Griffith had a hit in Destry Rides Again (1959), a musical version of the James Stewart/Marlene Dietrich film, aided by dazzling Michael Kidd choreography, although a feud between Ms. Gray and Mr. Kidd made all the newspapers. book:at-this-theatre-100-years-of-broadway-shows-stories-and-botto-louis-viagas-rober#p180

Harold Rome had another hit at the Imperial with Destry Rides Again (4/23/59; 472 performances), starring Andy Griffith and Dolores Gray. Everyone thought a western musical would not be a hit on sophisticated Broadway, but Rome and librettist Leonard Gershe proved them wrong with this David Merrick production. book:broadway-its-history-people-and-places-an-encyclopedia-bloom-ken-1949-2nd-ed-new#p279

His shows exhibited an unusual diversity in subject matter—from the Old West of Destry Rides Again to the New York garment district of J Can Get it for You Wholesale to the Old South of Gone with the Wind. book:broadway-its-history-people-and-places-an-encyclopedia-bloom-ken-1949-2nd-ed-new#p477

Destry was the poorer cousin to Gypsy in the same way that Foxy was allowed to wither. book:broadway-musicals-the-101-greatest-shows-of-all-time-bloom-ken-1949-vlastnik-fra#p89

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