Several revues of different sorts opened in autumn, including the latest edition of Charlot’s Revue in London, and Earl Carroll’s Vanities (with Sophie Tucker), The Grab Bag (with Ed Wynn) and Dixie to Broadway (with Florence Mills) in New York. Productions of Countess Maritza opened in Europe, including in Budapest, and a new musical starring Dorothy Dickson, Patricia, debuted in London.

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.