"Irving Berlin has no place in American music. He is American music"    - Jerome Kern

Irving Berlin wrote his first song in 1907 and his last in 1987. In the years between he wrote the music and lyrics for over 1,200 songs. Berlin's astounding creative output tells the story of America during the 20th century. His songs bolstered our collective spirits through two world wars and the Great Depression, the Korean Crisis and the Vietnam War, keeping our eyes on the blue skies, reminding us to count our blessings and celebrating the land that we love. During this current time of unrest, how better to uplift your audience than with a musical by this true American troubadour? We are proud to focus our current Spotlight Promotion on the musicals of Irving Berlin.

Present a Berlin musical or revue between September 1, 2004 and September 1, 2005 and we will waive the royalties for your opening night performance. (See below for complete terms and conditions.) For more information regarding all of the Berlin titles please click on the title of the show)

There's a very simple reason that Berlin's musicals have endured through the shifting fashions of time: they work. Not only do they provide great opportunities for your actors, directors, choreographers and conductors, but they are genuine audience pleasers as well.

The legendary Ethel Merman introduced two of Berlin's most famous scores. If you have that special actress who is known to bring down the house in roles created by the likes of Merman and Mary Martin, Angela Lansbury and Carol Channing, these first two musicals are just the vehicles to welcome her back to your stage.

The unlikely romance between sharp-shooter Annie Oakley and her rival, Frank Butler, makes for one of the all-time great showbiz musicals. The book by Herbert and Dorothy Fields is a model of construction and the rousing score hits the bull's eye every time: "There's No Business Like Show Business," "You Can't Get a Man With a Gun," "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)," "I Got the Sun in the Morning," "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly," and Berlin's final double-song, "An Old Fashioned Wedding." The show provides great roles for 7 leads and 8 featured players (including 3 children) with a large singing-dancing chorus. There are two versions of this musical available for production: the 1966 Lincoln Center edition, which was revised from the original by the authors themselves; and the Tony winning 1999 Broadway adaptation with a revised book by Peter Stone, which offers additional leads for your cutest young song-and-dance couple.

When President Truman packed Washington hostess Perle Mesta off to Luxembourg to serve as Ambassador, the scene was set for a musical comedy that would kid politics and romance alike. It provided Merman with another of her signature roles and offers your dashing leading man a great part as well. The witty, rollicking book is by Pulitzer Prize winners Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse ("The Sound of Music") and musical highlights include "The Hostess With the Mostes' On the Ball," "You're Just In Love," "It's a Lovely Day Today," and "Marrying for Love." The musical has terrific roles for 3 women and 6 men with a singing-dancing chorus and numerous small roles.

Two of Berlin's buried treasures are two of his most patriotic musicals, focusing on an extremely celebrated gentleman and lady, respectively. Both shows are ideal choices for delighting your audience with the discovery of something they haven't seen before.

For his final Broadway score, Irving Berlin went straight to the top — the exalted office of President of the United States. The book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse applies comedy and warmth to evoke the humanity within the White House as they cope with issues foreign and domestic, emphasizing a mutual love of country and family. The large cast affords a terrific role for your most distinguished leading man, and the roles of his impetuous wife, lovesick daughter and fast-driving son are great fun. The score includes "Let's Go Back to the Waltz," "This Is a Great Country," "Empty Pockets Full of Love" and "The Secret Service (Makes Me Nervous)." The singing-dancing ensemble includes several small but dynamic roles.

In 1885, a young reporter is fired when he bungles the important assignment of covering the installation of the Statue of Liberty. At his girl friend's urging, he hightails it to Paris in search of the model who posed for the statue, bringing her back to the U.S.A. for a tour financed by his former paper's rival. What he doesn't know is that he's got the wrong model, and what his girl friend doesn't know is that he's fallen in love with her. Pulitzer Prize winner Robert E. Sherwood's book, by turns antic and heartfelt, provides the inevitable happy ending at the statue's dedication and occasions an inspiring patriotic finale that only Irving Berlin could have written. The score includes the lovely waltz, "Let's Take an Old Fashioned Walk," the comic gem "You Can Have Him," and "Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor," Berlin's stirring setting of the Emma Lazarus poem. There are wonderful principal roles for 3 women and 5 men with many smaller parts and a chorus as large as desired.

Two more of Berlin's lesser-known musicals provide plentiful opportunities for your most accomplished comic actors and singers. And it's a director's dream to conceive a production of a work with which everyone isn't already familiar from repeated viewing.

The plot machinations of this 1940 hit could have been ripped from this morning's headlines. Pulitzer Prize winner Morrie Ryskind's book is set in New Orleans and lampoons Huey Long and his stronghold on Louisiana politics. Reviewing a 1996 concert presentation, New York Times critic Lawrence Van Gelder asserted the show's timeliness by asking, "Does the South still produce corrupt Democratic politicians and businessmen? Are there still Republican senators eager to expose them to further their own Presidential ambitions? Is sex still a weapon in those wars?" Here's another gleeful musical guaranteed to charm your audience during this year's election frenzy. It offers dandy roles for a comic couple of a certain age, a somewhat younger couple (but no less comic), and your hottest belter. The swingin' score, full of big-band jazz and tight vocal harmony, features "It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow," "Outside of That, I Love You," "What Chance Have I With Love?," and "It'll Come to You."

If you have four madcap guys, here's the show for them! This Marx Brothers musical finds the mischievous boys infiltrating the Florida real estate boom circa 1920 where they find Margaret Dumont to harass, jewels to steal, pockets to pick and lovers to confound. Pulitzer Prize winner George S. Kaufman's hilarious book is complemented by one of Berlin's zaniest and zippiest scores, including "Florida By the Sea," "The Monkey Doodle-Doo," "Everyone In the World Is Doing the Charleston," and the timeless standard, "Always." In addition to the Brothers, there are outstanding roles for 3 women and 3 men with many small parts within the singing-dancing ensemble.

If you want to showcase the versatillity of your performers, here are two rave revues that highligh the breadth of Irving Berlin's career.

This 1933 triumph was known as a "living newspaper," the inspiration for its songs and sketches coming from the headlines of the day. This was the Depression-era version of Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show, spoofing the likes of Gandhi, Joan Crawford, Josephine Baker, the Rockefellers, Betty Hutton, Aimee Semple McPherson and Noel Coward among the many in writer Moss Hart's satirical grab-bag. The stellar score introduced "Easter Parade," "Heat Wave," "Supper Time" and "Harlem On My Mind." The cast is comprised of 6 versatile performers and could be easily expanded to feature your brightest comics and most skillful musical theater performers.

"It's all history now — ancient history. The celebrated romance of the Catholic golden girl, born to millions, and the immigrant cantor's son from the Lower East Side." So writes Mary Ellin Barrett in her acclaimed biography Irving Berlin: A Daughter's Memoir, upon which this distinctive revue is based. An abundance of Berlin's love songs, dance numbers, novelty tunes and ballads are employed to tell his story, from singing waiter on the Bowery, through Tin Pan Alley to Hollywood and Broadway. The compelling heart of the show is one of the great American love stories, that of Irving Berlin and the heiress, Ellin Mackay. The score embraces a veritable hit parade including "What'll I Do?," "Puttin' On the Ritz," "White Christmas," "Blue Skies," "Steppin' Out With My Baby," "There's No Business Like Show Business" and many, many more. Although highly effective with a cast of 10, the show is easily expanded to offer opportunities to as many actors, singers and dancers as your stage can accommodate.