The Show Is On

The fifth and final mid-Thirties revue presented by the Shuberts at the Winter Garden was one of the brightest, merriest, and most elegant of the decade’s stage attractions. Featuring two superior clowns, Beatrice Lillie and Bert Lahr, The Show Is On was something of a successor to At Home Abroad, only this time the theme was around the world of show business. In songs, sketches, and production numbers, it looked in on a variety of phenomena and events — from excessively rhythmic pop singers to raffish burlesque shows, from John Gieldug’s production of Hamlet (wich is ruined by the outsburts of Miss Lillie’s boorish socialite) to coquettish music-hall entertainers (Miss Lillie perched on a migratory half moon dispensing garters to favored gentlemen), and from he-man concert baritones (Lahr’s classic “Song of the Woodman”) to an old-fashioned tent show production of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The Show Is On returned briefly in the fall of 1937 with Rose King and Willie Howard.

"The Show Is On was one of the season’s merriest carnivals, and it solidified director and designer Vincente Minnelli’s p": the show's own period marketing line.

Music

Miscellaneous writers

Lyrics

Miscellaneous writers