Gershwin–Funny Face, Babbitt and Bromide, Fred and adele, 1927

Today, we are going to finish with the seventh song from Act Two of the 1927 musical, Funny Face. Then we are going to listen to two songs written by Roger Edens and Leonard Gershe (lyrics) for the 1957 movie of the same name. Our seventh song is named “The Babbitt and the Bromide” and is a satirical take on two men who are superficial and unintentionally comical.

Fred Astaire and his sister Adele talk through three encounters between the two men, at different stages of their lives. Fred and Adele adopt different intonations to suggest the passage of time. George Gershwin also wrote some delightful music as an interlude between the encounters. The music takes the form of a polka, to suggest the light-hearted treatment that was intended.