Gershwin–Funny Face, key tracks, 1927

If we are really lucky, this will be posted on Thursday. So if this is any day but Thursday, we are in trouble.

Today, we are going to start a discussion about the 1927 major Gershwin brothers’ musical hit, Funny Face. It started on the road in Philadelphia on October 11, 1927; however, the show lacked anything close to being a hit at that time. Fred Astaire and his sister, Adele, were the main stars; it was written for them. But when Fred saw the script, he called it “a mess.” After a few weeks, attendance dropped off, and Astaire declared that “we were awful.”

The show continued on the road to Washington, D.C. and then Atlantic City. By the time the show got to Wilmington, things were starting to settle down a bit. Astaire thought it was “running smoothly” and “seemed better.” Those quotes may contain relative truth, but the plot is so bizarre that we are not going to bother to summarize it, other than to say that it makes a Mack Sennett comedy sane in comparison.

The show opened on Broadway on November 22, 1927, and the score contains some of the Gershwin’s best work. In addition to the title song, “Funny Face,” there is ” ‘S Wonderful,” “Let’s Kiss and Make Up,” “He Loves and She Loves” and “The Babbitt and the Bromide.” Finally, because we are not going to discuss the 1928 show, Rosalie, separately, we are going to include “How Long Has This Been Going On” in our review of the music from Funny Face.

Our first clip is a long one because we were not able to edit it down to size. The youtube poster claimed that this was music from Funny Face; in fact, it contains music from three shows: Song of the Flame; Funny Face; and The Broadway Melody. As you go through the 12 minute clip, you will see that Tracks 1 and 2 are from Song of the Flame; and although it is lovely music, it ain’t Funny Face.

If you push the little red ball forward to Track 3 (which starts at 5:55), you will hear the dual piano artists, Arden and Ohman, along with their orchestra. While Song of the Flame was recorded on 2/4/26, selections from Funny Face were recorded later.

‘S Wonderful starts at 6:00
My One and Only starts at 6:40
He Loves and She Loves starts at 7:37
Funny Face starts at 8:40
‘S Wonderful vocal by Franklyn Baur and the Revelers starts at 9:05
Funny Face medley starts at 10

Track 4 features a lovely rendition of “The Broadway Melody,” sung by Charles King for the 4/3/29 movie of the same name.