Set at a summer stock theatre many years ago, Babes In Arms concerns a group of young apprentices and their conviction to mount an original revue, despite the underhanded attempts of the surly theatre owner to squash their efforts at every turn. Further complications stem from the overbearing stage mother of a beautiful ex-child star and the inflated ego of a hack southern playwright. But of course the show must go on, and so it does — in a spectacular musical resolution of comeuppance, reconciliation and romance.
This version is the 1959 adaptation by George Oppenheimer. The 1978 John Guare adaptation is also available.
Babes in Arms opened on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre on
April 14, 1937, starring Ray Heatherton, Wynn Murray, Alfred Drake,
Mitzi Green and the Nicholas Brothers. The show later transferrred to
the Majestic Theatre, playing a total of 289 performances.
In 1959, under the supervision of Richard Rodgers, George Oppenheimer revised the script for a production mounted at the Royal Poinciana Playhouse in Palm Beach, starring Julie Wilson. That revision became the officially licensed script, presented across the country and through the decades with success at such prestigious venues as the Goodspeed Opera House (featuring Andrea McArdle) in 1979, as well as countless high schools, colleges and community/summer stock theatres.