The Vagabond King
Shows · The Vagabond King
Originally, producer Russell Janney planned this operatta to have a score by the youthful team of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart who had already transformed the venerable novel and play, If I Were King, into an amateur musical. When he was unable to get financial backing, however, Janney turned to the more experienced team of Rudolf Friml and Brian Hooker. The Vagabond King is concerned with the amours and adventure…
- Opened
- 1925
- Performances
- 511
- Type
- Musical
- Era
- Early
Productions2 on Broadway
| 1925 | Casino Theatre Original. September 21, 1925 | 511 performances |
| 1943 | Shubert Theatre Revival. June 29, 1943 · George Ermoloff | 56 performances |
Every Broadway staging held in broadway-data, sourced to IBDB. West End runs are not yet held.
Recordings 1 album held
Licensing 4 entries
| US | Concord Theatricals Concord Theatricals | available |
| US | Concord Theatricals Tams-Witmark | available |
| UK | Concord Theatricals Tams-Witmark | available |
| UK | Concord Theatricals Concord Theatricals | 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.
39 passages naming The Vagabond King, found by keyword across 178 books. It's where this show turns up in the literature, not curated trivia about it.
Just as The Vagabond King had offered Dennis King as the dashing Francois Villon singing Rudolf Friml songs in a tale of adventure and intrigue in the days of Louis XI, so The Three Musketeers offered King as the dashing book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-seventh-edition-stanley-green-cary-ginell#p69
Alfred, Julian Poppy Vagabond King, The book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-seventh-edition-stanley-green-cary-ginell#p387
Friml’s next Broadway show, The Vagabond King (10/21/25; 511 performances), proved almost as successful as Rose-Marie, with Friml returning to his European roots. The production, with lyrics by Brian Hooker, starred Dennis King and Carolyn Thomson. book:broadway-its-history-people-and-places-an-encyclopedia-bloom-ken-1949-2nd-ed-new#p198
Friml’s next show, High Jinks (1913), was also a smash hit, and the young composer was on his way. He hit his stride in 1924 with the magnificent Rose-Marie and followed that with another classic, The Vagabond King (1925) and, a few years later, another huge hit, The Three Musketeers (1928). book:broadway-musicals-the-101-greatest-shows-of-all-time-bloom-ken-1949-vlastnik-fra#p285
The Vagabond King, another popular operetta with a score by Friml, premieres at the Casino Theater for a run of 511 performances. book:historical-dictionary-of-the-broadway-musical-volume-22-william-a-everett-paul-r#p19
Friml’s best-remembered musicals are his spectacular operettas of the 1920s: Rose Marie (1924), The Vagabond King (1925), and The Three Musketeers (1928). book:historical-dictionary-of-the-broadway-musical-volume-22-william-a-everett-paul-r#p157
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