On Your Toes [scenes]

Summary: BBC Television production of scenes from the musical On Your Toes, currently being presented at the London Coliseum by D. H. Munro.
Theatre play: On Your Toes by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart and George Abbott (1887-1995) [more information]
Play synopsis: 'On your Toes was a major theatrical breakthrough because of its use of ballet as an integral part of the plot of a musical. In the story, Junior Dolan, an ex-vaudeville hoofer now a NY music teacher, persuade a Russian ballet company to perform a modern ballet, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, with himself in the lead. During the performance Junior is mistaken for another dancer who owes a gambling debt and is forced to keep dancing after the ballet is over in order to avoid being shot by two thugs in the theatre’ (source: Stanley Green’s 1980 Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre, New York: Da Capo, p. 323).
Production history: First performed in February 1937 (source: http://www.glenncarter.com/stage/musicals/onyourtoes.htm).
Date of transmission: Friday 21 May 1937
Time: 3.00pm (73 mins)
Series: Theatre Parade
Channel: BBC Television
Production company: BBC

Producer

Lee Ephraim

Television Presentation by

D. H. Munro

Book by

George Abbott (1887-1995)

Book by

Book by

Composer

Lyrics

Conductor

Lew Stone (BBC Television Orchestra)

Musician

Harry Foster (piano)

Musician

Bruce Merryl (piano)

Cast

Notes: The Radio Times lists this as a 35-minute programme, but the BBC Television Programme Records (vol. 1, p. 41) states that it lasted for 73 minutes.
Extant status: No archival copy is known to exist.
Play tags: America, as theme or setting; ballet; gambling; musical

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