The Drama Nerds Database

Minnie’s Boys

We hold no picture of this show. This is Vicki Frederick, who was in the 1970 production.
We hold no picture of this show. This is Vicki Frederick, who was in the 1970 production. None

Shows · Minnie’s Boys

The story follows the young Marx Brothers as they are pushed into show business by their ambitious mother, Minnie Marx. From their humble beginnings in a New York tenement, Minnie schemes, cajoles, and bullies her five sons onto the vaudeville stage, transforming them from reluctant performers into one of the greatest comedy acts in American entertainment history.

Opened
1970
Performances
80
Type
Musical
Era
Revolution
Music: Larry GrossmanLyrics: Hal HackadyBook: Arthur Marx, Robert Fisher

Productions1 on Broadway

1970 Imperial Theatre Original. March 26, 1970 · Stanley Prager 80 performances

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

21 passages naming Minnie’s Boys, found by keyword across 178 books. It's where this show turns up in the literature, not curated trivia about it.

The Marx Brothers were leading characters in two later Broadway musicals: the biographical Minnie’s Boys (1970) book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-seventh-edition-stanley-green-cary-ginell#p59

Minnie’s Boys (3/26/70; 76 performances) was a musi calization of the early career of the Marx Brothers and starred Shelley Winters. book:broadway-its-history-people-and-places-an-encyclopedia-bloom-ken-1949-2nd-ed-new#p279

“Five Growing Boys” (from Minnie’s Boys), “Addie’s at It gain” (from I Had a Ball), “Desert Moon” (from Golden Rainbow). or “Where Is the Tribe for Me?” from Bajour). We just love that all-American, 100 percent pasteurized processed cheese, and the cheesier the better. book:broadway-musicals-the-101-greatest-shows-of-all-time-bloom-ken-1949-vlastnik-fra#p168

Shelley Winters as Minnie Marx, mother to “Five Growing Boys” in the Guilty Pleasure Minnie’s Boys, with an often enjoyable score by the flop-prone team of Larry Grossman and Hal Hackady. book:broadway-musicals-the-101-greatest-shows-of-all-time-bloom-ken-1949-vlastnik-fra#p169

A couple of other off-balance shows leap to mind. In Minnie’s Boys, it’s the Marx brothers you care about, but the lead went to Shelley Winters, play- book:broadway-musicals-the-101-greatest-shows-of-all-time-bloom-ken-1949-vlastnik-fra#p319

But Minnie’ Boys was ill-conceived, with Mama Minnie proving less formidable than Madam Rose. Shelley Winters wasn’t up to Merman or Lansbury, either. book:more-opening-nights-on-broadway-a-critical-quotebook-of-compiled-by-steven-suski#p634

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