#popculture27: The Gershwins Make the Musical “Funny Face,” Starring Fred & Adele Astaire

The songwriting brothers—and the dancing siblings—teamed up for a Broadway production, with songs that endured in future shows.

The story of modern American musical theater would be incomplete without George & Ira Gershwin. Their heyday was the twenties, but their influence endured for longer.

One of their hit musicals is little remembered today but it inspired future ones: the 1927 show Funny Face.

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With a song in your heart

I haven’t seen many Broadway musicals. When Rent came to Broadway in 1996, I saw it with the original cast. That was my first Broadway show, and I fell in love with it. The last one I’ve seen is The Band’s Visit, in 2018. I’ve seen smaller musicals in other venues. Earlier this year, I saw a student production of a Handel opera.

I’ve seen people claim it’s hard to accept the premise of a stage performance where the actors sing. I’ve never understood that. Audiences accept weirder things in a fictional performance, such as sci-fi and fantasy. Singing strikes me as an easier contrivance by comparison.

For nearly a century, songs from the Gershwins have been part of American culture.

I like a Gershwin tune… how about you?

George & Ira Gershwin were born during the final years of the nineteenth century. The brothers rose to popularity as songwriters—George as a composer, Ira as a lyricist—during the 1920s. They’re known for:

• the Broadway musicals Of Thee I Sing, and its sequel, Let ‘Em Eat Cake,

• the music for the film Shall We Dance,

• the opera Porgy and Bess, and

• the orchestral pieces Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris.

You definitely know their songs:

• “Summertime,”

• “Someone to Watch Over Me,”

• “I Got Rhythm,”

• “They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” and

• “Love Is Here to Stay,” among others.

George left school at fifteen to become a music promoter, or “song plugger,” on New York’s Tin Pan Alley on 28 Street during the 1910s. He moved on to composing material. Ira entered the music business later, in the early twenties. The two joined forces in 1924 for the Broadway musical Lady Be Good.

Their collaboration lasted until George’s sudden death from a brain tumor in 1937. Ira continued to work, with composers such as Jerome Kern, Kurt Weill, Harry Warren and Harold Arlen.

1927 was also the year the Gershwins’ Strike Up the Band opened in Philadelphia, but didn’t make it to New York and Broadway until 1930.

Funny Face was made during the Gershwins’ peak.

Funny Face on Broadway

Paul Gerard Smith and Fred Thompson wrote the book for what was originally called Smarty. The musical revolves around stolen pearls, a diary, and various thieves. It went through rewrites as it toured the east coast before opening at the Alvin Theatre in the fall, renamed Funny Face.

It was the inaugural performance at the brand new Alvin, on 52 Street. Named for its producers and operators, Alex Aarons and Vinton Freedley, it later showed two more Gershwin musicals, Girl Crazy and Porgy and Bess. Today it’s known as the Neil Simon Theatre.

Among the songs in Funny Face include “S Wonderful,” “Funny Face,” and “My One and Only.”

The stars were Fred and Adele Astaire.

Fred and Adele Astaire

Before Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire’s dance partner was his older sister Adele. Born in Omaha, they started out as a vaudeville duo before graduating to Broadway. She was the more extroverted of the two, while he was more serious and anxious about their performances.

Fred met George in 1916. The dancer wanted a vaudeville number and came to the composer. They vowed to work together again, and they did, eight years later with Lady Be Good. The Astaires starred in the musical, the first hit for the Gershwins.

In Funny Face, Fred performed in a top hat and evening clothes for the first time. Adele performed “‘S Wonderful,” with co-star Allen Kearns.

The Astaires starred in six musicals together, including Cole Porter’s The Gay Divorce, which Hollywood would adapt with Fred (and Rogers) as The Gay Divorcee.

Adele retired from the stage in 1932 after she married an Irish duke.

Funny Face’s connection to future musicals

In 1957, Fred starred in a movie musical also called Funny Face, with Audrey Hepburn. It used songs from the stage musical such as “‘S Wonderful,” but it had a different plot.

In 1983, the Broadway musical My One and Only also used “‘S Wonderful” and other songs from Funny Face, but it too, had a different plot.

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Also in 1927:

• “My Blue Heaven” by Gene Austin begins a thirteen-week run at number one. He has two other number one singles that year, “Tonight You Belong to Me” and “Forgive Me.”

• The Carter Family, who would later include June Carter Cash, begins recording.

• Blind Willie McTell begins recording.

• Stan Getz is born.

• Patti Page is born.

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Have you seen any Gershwin musicals? Leave a comment and let me know!

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