Маленький Джонни Джонс: Первый американский мюзикл

1904 musical by George M. Cohan

Little Johnny Jones is a musical by George M. Cohan. The show introduced Cohan's tunes "Give My Regards to Broadway" and "The Yankee Doodle Boy." The "Yankee Doodle" character was inspired by real life Hall of Fame jockey Tod Sloan.

The show was Cohan's first full length musical. A famous American jockey, Tod Sloan, had gone to England in 1903 to ride in the Derby for King Edward VII of England. This gave Cohan the idea for the story. The musical is patriotic in tone and contains a number of quips aimed at European targets, such as, "You think I'd marry an heiress and live off her money? What do you take me for? An Englishman?" and, "French pastry ain't worth 30¢ compared to American apple pie." In Little Johnny Jones Cohan introduced some of the dance steps and comedy features for which he would become famous. This musical is credited as the first American musical, albeit with several rivals to the title such as The Black Crook and Evangeline.

Little Johnny Jones was produced by Sam H. Harris and directed by George M. Cohan, who also performed in it. Other members of The Four Cohans in the cast were his parents, and his then wife Ethel Levey, who had replaced Cohan's sister Josie in the family act.

Little Johnny Jones opened on Broadway at the Liberty Theatre on November 7, 1904. The first Broadway run of only 52 performances was followed by tours, during which some rewrites were made. One of these was a new song Life's a Funny Proposition After All, added to the finale in May 1905. Little Johnny Jones was revived twice in 1905 at the New York Theatre, playing successfully for over 200 performances through most of that year, and touring until the next Broadway revival in 1907 for a short run at the Academy of Music. The production was mounted with a huge cast.

Little Johnny Jones was adapted twice for the motion pictures, first as a silent film released in 1923 by Warner Bros. First National followed this in 1929 with an early talkie musical version directed by Mervyn LeRoy, who played a bit part in the 1923 film. Eddie Buzzell, who co wrote the screenplay with Adelaide Heilbron, played the title role. Only two of Cohan's original songs survived the transition to the screen ("Give My Regards To Broadway" and "Yankee Doodle Boy"). The five other tunes in the film's score were contributed by various other songwriters, mainly Herb Magidson and Michael H. Cleary. James Cagney appeared in a play within a play staging of numbers and dances from Little Johnny Jones in the 1942 film, Yankee Doodle Dandy. David Cassidy starred in a touring revival in 1981. After previewing at Connecticut's Goodspeed Opera House and touring, a 1982 revival, adapted by Alfred Uhry and starring Donny Osmond in the lead closed at the Alvin Theatre after only one performance. An adaptation of the show was produced by the Light Opera of Manhattan in the late 1980s, called Give My Regards to Broadway and was successful for that company.