Book by Joe Darion and Mel Brooks Lyrics by Joe Darion Music by George Kleinsinger

(Based on a the stories of Don Marquis)
Produced on Broadway as SHINBONE ALLEY
By arrangement with Hal Leonard Australia Pty Ltd Exclusive agent for Music Theatre International (NY)

Before he helped us ‘Keep it Gay’ in The Producers, Mel Brooks was laying them in the aisles in another Broadway musical about a cute little cock- roach in love with a cat...

In a deserted office, a cockroach dives headfirst onto the keys of a typewriter, pouring out the ruminations of his soul.

It’s “archy” (he’s too small to hold down the shift key), poet, philosopher, moralist and futile worshipper of “mehitabel,” the alley cat.

This bizarre, highly original musical takes us into the streets of the big city as archy tries hopelessly to bring the “toujours gai” mehitabel off the back fence and into a respect- able home as a housecat.

History

It all began in 1916, with Don Marquis' whimsical stories for The New York Evening Sun.

In 1954, a 45 minute album was recorded, with Carol Channing as Mehitabel and Eddie Bracken as Archy. A concert version by the Little Orchestra Society in New York followed, and at that point, archy & mehitabel was renamed Shinbone Alley. It opened on April 13, 1957 at the Broadway Theatre, with Bracken and Eartha Kitt (understudied by Chita Rivera) in the leads. The book was co-written by lyricist Joe Darion and Mel Brooks, the future director of future Hollywood satires like Blazing Saddles, Spaceballs, The Producers and History of the World, Part One.

Way ahead of its time (Cats didn't open for another quarter-century) Shinbone Alley lasted only 49 performances. But it wasn't over then. Popularity was such that the show was presented on television for a national audience, this time with Bracken and Tammy Grimes.

Finally, Shinbone Alley was made into an animated film with the leads who began it all, Channing and Bracken. Today it is often singled out as one of the most daring and innovative musicals of the Golden Age of Broadway.

Magnormos Music Theatre Readings Program 2005

presents the Australian premiere of this exciting Broadway classic