As the summer progressed, a variety of musical productions were on offer. These included a revival of The Merry Widow; musical comedies concerning class difference, including The Street Singer, about a countess who falls in love with a Parisian street painter, and Tilly, about a wealthy man and an impoverished woman who, planning to marry, meet each other’s families; a modernist work called Midsummer Madness that includes a play-within-a-play and starred Marie Tempest in her return to the musical stage; and Victor Herbert’s final musical, a time-travel fantasy called The Dream Girl, which opened posthumously.

The numerous revues that opened in spring 1924 reflected many different approaches to the popular and profitable genre. Five revues debuted over four days in May in New York (including I’ll Say She Is, starring the Marx Brothers; Innocent Eyes, featuring Mistinguett and on-stage nudity; and The Grand Street Follies, produced away from Times Square at the Neighborhood Playhouse). London had its own revues open that showed tremendous aesthetic contrasts, including Elsie Janis at Home starring the popular American entertainer, and two editions of major series: Ziegfeld’s Follies, which included a sequence dedicated to the memory of Victor Herbert, and George White’s Scandals, the last Scandals for which George Gershwin wrote music, premiered on Broadway.

Two operettas – Emmerich Kálmán’s Gräfin Mariza (Countess Maritza) and Franz Lehár’s Cloclo – opened in Vienna eight days apart. The works reflect different approaches to the genre: lavishness in the first and modesty in the second. In both works, new styles of syncopated dances appear alongside classic operetta waltzes for specific dramaturgical reasons. Gräfin Mariza is set in Hungary and reflects many of the anxieties being felt in Vienna following the Great War. Cloclo is set in France and. in addition to its many up-to-date elements, including a foxtrot with lyrics referring directly to flapper culture, includes references to Lehár’s biggest hit: The Merry Widow.

Among the major musical theatrical events of early 1924 was the opening of André Charlot’s Revue of 1924 on Broadway. The London import focused on its performers and intimate character and included the US debuts of Gertrude Lawrence, Beatrice Lillie and Jack Buchanan. An Italian version of Madame Pompadour opened in Milan, as did the zarzuela La leyenda del beso (The Legend of the Kiss) in Milan. New musical comedies came to Broadway, and The Three Graces, an operetta adaptation, played in London. The major event, though, was the premiere of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

Musicals that opened in November tended to operate in pairs. Annie Dear, a musical comedy starring Billie Burke and produced by Florenz Ziegfeld, opened days before a revival of the play Peter Pan, starring Marilyn Miller and produced by Charles B. Dillingham. Burke was known for her dramatic roles and Miller for her dancing and singing ones, so this was a reversal of norms. Two adaptations of continental European works opened on Anglophone stages: The First Kiss, a transformation of a Spanish zarzuela, in London, and a new version of Madame Pompadour in New York.

Transnational networks were significant in the production of musical theatre in 1923 and 1924. Musicals created in one country transferred to another (Stop Flirting, Little Nellie Kelly), composers were writing works specifically for different countries (Jerome Kern: The Beauty Prize for the United Kingdom, Stepping Stones for the USA), and some musicals told a story about a different country (Wildflower, Il paese dei campanelli (The Land of the Bells)). New stars such as Adele and Fred Astaire appeared on marquees, as did established ones such as Fred Stone. Works originating in one place, such as Maurice Yvain’s Ta bouche, from Paris, came to the USA as One Kiss in an adaptation by Clare Kummer. This vibrant co-existence of the old and the new, the established and the emerging, was a key part of musical theatre in 1924.

After a contextual overview of events in 1924, the legacy of Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake’s Shuffle Along (starring Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles) on other Black musicals, including Runnin’ Wild, featuring Adelaide Hall and Elisabeth Welch, and Dinah, in which Gertrude Saunders introduced the Black Bottom dance, is discussed. Next is an introduction to the revue genre, with examples including Ziegfeld’s Follies of 1923, the Shubert’s Artists and Models and Charlot’s London Calling!, all of which played into 1924.