The plot revolves around the adventures of the Duke of Durham and his sister, Lady Kay, English bootleggers in Prohibition Era America.
In accordance with the typical creative process for early American musicals, George and Ira Gershwin wrote the score to Oh, Kay!
[2] The show's Philadelphia previews ran more than three hours, and so the producers cut the prologue (where the leading lady was introduced), thus losing the first 4 songs, and also the Act II "Finaletto", which became obsolete in the reshuffling.
[3] The story aptly captured the spirit of the Roaring Twenties, featuring settings and characters familiar to theatre audiences: an opulent Long Island mansion and notorious (but comic) bootleggers.
Jimmy Winter is very popular among the young ladies, and they are cleaning the living room of his Long Island, New York, estate, declaring that "The Woman's Touch" is exactly what his home needs.
In his absence, some English bootleggers, the Duke of Durham, his sister, Lady Kay, and their thick-headed American assistants, "Shorty" McGee and Larry Potter, have stashed their illegal booze in Jimmy's house.
When they hear that Jimmy is returning, the Duke cancels that night's rum run and plans to remove their hundreds of cases of liquor from the cellar.
Kay says she is Jimmy's wife, and since the just-married suitcases are still scattered around the living room, the revenue officer believes her and leaves.
The pretty girls also drop in, and Larry leads a minstrel-style song and dance ("Clap Yo' Hands") to cheer up the Duke.
Wedding photographs of the "Bride and Groom" are being taken, and Kay, still disguised as a maid, tries to convince Jimmy that she would be a better wife than fussy Constance.
Kay is trying on one of Constance's gowns, and, since she does not look like a maid anymore, she and Shorty convince the revenue officer that she is Jimmy's wife.
The wedding begins, and as the Judge reads the service, he is interrupted by Shorty, disguised as a revenue agent, who is executing Kay's plan.
The real revenue officer arrives, arrests the Duke and Kay, and charges Jimmy with harboring a criminal.
premiered on November 8, 1926, at the Imperial Theatre on Broadway, starring Gertrude Lawrence and Victor Moore, and ran for 256 performances.
[5] In London, it played at His Majesty's Theatre, opening on September 21, 1927, and ran for 213 performances, starring Lawrence and John Kirby.
[citation needed] In 1955 Barbara Ruick, Jack Cassidy and Allen Case headlined the first LP studio cast album which was released by Columbia Records, conducted by Lehman Engel.
[5] An off-Broadway production in 1960 at the East 74th Street Theater starred Linda Lavin, Penny Fuller and David Daniels, with Eddie Phillips, Bernie West, Murray Matheson and Marti Stevens; high school student Daniel Lewis worked a follow spot.
[12] In 1997 a Discovering Lost Musicals concert version played at the Barbican Centre in London, using the original script (with Louise Gold in the title role).
[13] The musical was made into a silent film of the same name in 1928[14] A recording of the musical made in 1995, with Dawn Upshaw, restored the songs The Moon Is On the Sea, When Our Ship Comes Sailing In and Ain't It Romantic, cut from the original production, and returned Someone to Watch Over Me to its original position, early in Act I.