ON YOUR TOES a musical comedy in 2 acts and 14 scenes by Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart and George Abbott : Lyrics by Lorenz Hart. Music by Richard Rodgers. Produced at the Imperial Theatre, New York, 11th April 1936 with Ray Bolger, Tamara Geva, Doris Carson and Luella Gear, at the 46th Street Theatre, 11th October 1954 with Bobby Van, Vera Zorina, Kay Coulter and Elaine Stritch and at the Virginia Theatre, 6th March 1983 with Lara Teeter, Natalia Makarova, Christine Andreas, Dina Merrill and George S. Irving Produced at the Palace Theatre, London, 5th February 1937 with Jack Whiting, Vera Zorina, Gina Malo and Olive Blakeney. Revived at the Palace Theatre, 12th June 1984 with Tim Flavin, Natalia Makarova, Siobhan McCarthy, Honor Blackman and John Bennett. SYNOPSIS Act I On a vaudeville stage, Phil Dolan II his wife Lili and his son Junior perform their nightly routine, - but afterwards in the dressing-room, Ma and Pa tell Junior he has to go to school. And fifteen years later, as predicted, Junior is a music teacher at Knickerbocker University. He has two talented students: Sidney Cohn and Frankie Frayne. Sidney has written a promising jazz ballet which Frankie catches Junior dancing to alone in the classroom (uncovering his 'secret past') and she trades an introduction to the Russian Ballet's manager in return for his In the apartment of Vera Baranova, star of the Russian Ballet, Peggy, the manager, enthusiastically tells Sergei, the company's director, about the new jazz ballet. He is not interested in anything new - he doesn't even recognise that the Revolution has happened! Junior arrives as Vera and co-star/unfaithful lover Morrisone are having a Russian screaming match. The others leave, so that Vera and Junior can discuss the new ballet - but that's not at all how the scene ends… Back in the classroom: Frankie is jealous of Junior's stories about Vera and the Russians (Peggy has promised him a chance to dance in the corps de ballet) and they both wish they were away from it all. At the opening of the ballet 'La Princesse Zenobia', Junior is told that one of the dancers is in jail and he has to take his place, but onstage he gets all his steps, rhythms and positions cock-eyed and makes a laughing-stock of the ballet. But the audience loves it! Act II Sergei, Peggy, Vera, Morrosine and Junior have listened to the jazz ballet. Opinions are mixed, and Vera and Morrosine are still bitching at each other, as he becomes increasingly jealous of Junior. Poor Junior has got love problems, too: he upsets Frankie by going to lunch with Vera (for business reasons) instead of her, but she is 'Glad to be Unhappy'. Next: Peggy, Sergei and some of the company visit Junior's school: Sergei has come to break the bad news that he will not be doing the jazz ballet, but Peggy persuades him oh-so-gently by threatening to pull out the million dollars she has put into the company. After Sergei's announcement that the next production will be Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, the class put on the title number 'On Your Toes', in which the students' jazz and the company's classical routines are deftly combined. At a rehearsal, Morrosine's jealousy of Junior gets out of control, there is a fight in which he is knocked out by
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