Eleanor Powell

 


At Home Abroad

Producer: Messrs. Shubert
Music: Arthur Schwartz, Howard Dietz
Script: miscellaneus writers
Director: Vincente Minnelli, Thomas Mitchell
Choreographer: Gene Snyder, Harry Losee
opened on September 19, 1935 at the Winter Garden Theatre, 198 performances

Cast:
Beatrice Lillie, Ethel Walters, Herb Williams, Eleanor Powell, Paul Haakon, Reginald Gardiner, Eddie Foy, jr., Vera Allan, John Payne

Songs:
"Hottentot Potentate", "Paree", "Thief in the Night", "Love is a Dancing Thing", "Loadi' Time", "What a Wonderful World", "Get Yourself a Geisha", "Got A Barn' New Suit", "It's Better With Your Shoes Off"

An around-the-world cruise - avoiding such countries as Germany, Italy and Russia, probably for political reasons - was the thiny plot of this revue full of sketches and production numbers referring to the different countries full of colorful locales. The American tourists are visting following places (Author's note: probaly not in this order, I haven't found the original program yet..) where they meet following locas: London, Beatrice Lillie trying to purchase two dozend double damask dinner napkins and Eleanor Powell as high-hatted toe-tapping Eaton boy; Switzerland ,where Beatrice Lillie was the yodeling wife of a alpine guide; Samoa, where Eleanor Powell was a Samoan beauty; Congo: Ethel Walters claimed herself as Hottentot Potentate; West-Indies where Ethel Walters had another oportunity for a song; Japan, with Beatrice Lillie as a geisha girl; Balkan - Eleanor Powell tapping spy-messages out; Paris and Spain, with dancer Paul Haakon doing a bullfight ballet.
Although the plot was paperthin and the music doesn't belong to the composer's and lyricist's top works, the excellent direction and performances made it inspite of a runningtime of more than three hours to one of the hits of the season.


the stars of At Home Abroad:
on the top Eleanor Powell, right Ethel Walters ,
in the middle Beatrice Lillie, left Herb Williams