Good News!

The fifth longest running musical of the Twenties, Good News! was the firtst of a quartet of breezy, youthful DeSylva, Brown and Henderson musical comedies that capitalized on popular sports, fads, occupations, and innovations. (The others: Hold Everything!, Flying High, and Follow Thru.) In this caper about America’s flaming youth, the setting is Tait College, where students spend their time dancing “The Varsity Drag,” where the burning issue is whether football hero Tom Marlowe will be allowed to lead the team despite his failing grade in astronomy, and where hero can console heroine Connie Laine by assuring her “The Best Things in Life Are Free.” Helping to establish the collegiate atmosphere of the entertainment were the members of George Olsen’s Orchestra who, before playing the overture, marched down the theatre aisles sporting diamond-pattern sweaters and barking football cheers. In the fall of 1974, Alice Faye and Gene Nelson opened on Broadway in a revival that lasted two weeks. June Allyson and Peter Lawford were in the 1947 screen version. Hit the Deck! Charles King and Louise Groody. (White)

Music

Ray Henderson

Lyrics

B. G. DeSylva & Lew Brown

Book

Laurence Schwab & B. G. DeSylva