{{For|the film|Shinbone Alley (film)}} {{For|the song by Spin Doctors|Pocket Full of Kryptonite}} {{Infobox musical |name= Shinbone Alley |subtitle= |image= ShinboneAlley1.jpg |image_size= 150px |caption= |music= George Kleinsinger |lyrics= Joe Darion |book= Joe Darion <br> Mel Brooks |basis= Don Marquis's ''New York Tribune'' columns ''Archy and Mehitabel'' |productions= 1957 Broadway<br> 1960 US television<br> 2005 Melbourne, Australia <!-- Please do not include production-specific (acting, directing, etc.) awards --> |awards= }}
'''''Shinbone Alley''''' (sometimes performed as '''''archy & mehitabel'''''<ref name="Melbourne">{{cite web |url=http://www.entertainmentdepot.com.au/news/2005/page/17/ |title=Entertainment News: ''archy & mehitabel'' (November 28–30, 2005) |publisher=Entertainmentdepot.com.au |access-date=March 18, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721075644/http://www.entertainmentdepot.com.au/news/2005/page/17/ |archive-date=July 21, 2011 }}</ref><ref name="Magnormos">{{cite web|url=http://www.magnormos.com/mtrp_shows_archyandmehitabel.htm|title=''archy & mehitabel'' (November 28–30, 2005)|publisher=Magnormos.com|access-date=March 18, 2010|archive-date=March 3, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303190726/http://www.magnormos.com/mtrp_shows_archyandmehitabel.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>) is a musical with a book by Joe Darion and Mel Brooks, lyrics by Darion, and music by George Kleinsinger. Based on the album ''Archy and Mehitabel: A Back-Alley Opera'', which in turn was based on ''archy and mehitabel'', <!-- This is the correct capitalization. --> a series of ''New York Tribune'' columns by Don Marquis (illustrated by Krazy Kat author George Herriman), it focuses on poetic cockroach Archy (who wasn't strong enough to depress the typewriter's shift-key), alley cat Mehitabel, and her relationships with theatrical cat Tyrone T. Tattersall and tomcat Big Bill, under the watchful eye of the newspaperman, the voice-over narrator and only human being in the show.<ref>{{Cite web|last=John|title=Photos From 'archy and mehitabel' (1954) {{!}} Don Marquis|date=2 February 2013 |url=http://donmarquis.com/photos-from-archy-and-mehitabel-1954/|access-date=2021-12-02|language=en-US}}</ref>
==Productions and background== The project began in 1954 as a Columbia Records concept album with Marquis' original title, featuring Eddie Bracken, Carol Channing, and David Wayne. That same year a concert version was presented by the Little Orchestra Society at The Town Hall in New York City. With an expanded book, the addition of several lengthy ballet sequences, and a cast of animal characters, the rechristened ''Shinbone Alley'' preceded ''Cats'' by a couple of decades and was a precursor of the far more successful Andrew Lloyd Webber hit. It was one of the first Broadway shows to feature a fully integrated cast.
The original Shinbone Alley was in Manhattan.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://forgotten-ny.com/index.php/2007/04/05/love-jones/|title=LOVEJONES|date=April 5, 2007|website=Forgotten New York|access-date=November 19, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201119184435/https://forgotten-ny.com/index.php/2007/04/05/love-jones/|archive-date=November 19, 2020|url-status=live}}</ref>
With neither an out-of-town tryout nor a preview period, the Broadway production opened on April 13, 1957, at The Broadway Theatre, and closed on May 25, 1957, after 49 performances. Following "creative differences" with the writers and producers, original director Norman Lloyd requested that his name be removed from the credits. The production was supervised by Sawyer Falk and choreographed by Joe and Rod Alexander, with production design by Eldon Elder, costumes by Motley, and lighting by Tharon Musser. The cast featured Bracken, reprising his role as archy, Eartha Kitt as mehitabel, Erik Rhodes as tyrone, and George S. Irving as big bill. Supporting players included Cathryn Damon, Jacques d'Amboise, Ross Martin, Lillian Hayman, and Allegra Kent. Relative newcomer Chita Rivera was Kitt's standby.
The show's sole Tony Award nomination was for Best Costume Design. In lieu of a cast album recorded in a studio, a tape of a live performance was transferred to acetate and released on the Legend label. In 2005 the musical had its Australian premiere in Melbourne, under the name ''archy & mehitabel''. Produced by Magnormos, it was directed by Aaron Joyner and starred Jane Badler in the role of mehitabel, and Michael Lindner as archy.<ref name="Melbourne"/><ref name="Magnormos"/> The "Musicals Tonight!" series presented a staged concert version in November 2006 in New York City.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.musicalstonight.org/ARCHshinbonealley.html |title=''Shinbone Alley'' |publisher=musicalstonight.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160404212139/http://www.musicalstonight.org/ARCHshinbonealley.html |archive-date=4 April 2016}}</ref>
===Current licensing=== Licensing and performance rights are being held by Music Theatre International, under the ''archy & mehitabel'' title.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mtishows.com/show_detail.asp?showid=000008|title=Archy & Mehitabel|date=September 16, 2015|website=MTIShows.com|access-date=August 20, 2017}}</ref>
==Film and TV adaptations== On May 16, 1960, an abridged version of the musical was broadcast under the original title ''archy & mehitabel''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://imdb.com/title/tt0675368/ |title=''archy and mehitabel'' |year=1960 |publisher=Imdb.com |access-date=March 18, 2010}}</ref><!-- This is the correct capitalization--> as part of the syndicated TV anthology series ''Play of the Week'' presented by David Susskind. The cast included Bracken, Tammy Grimes, and Jules Munshin.<ref name="don">[http://www.donmarquis.com/archy/ "archy and mehitabel"] donmarquis.com, retrieved March 18, 2010</ref>
Bracken and Channing reunited to provide the voices for the Allied Artists animated feature film in 1971, ''Shinbone Alley'', directed by John David Wilson for Fine Arts Films.<ref name=don/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Lenburg |first1=Jeff |title=The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons |date=1999 |publisher=Checkmark Books |isbn=0-8160-3831-7 |access-date=6 June 2020 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780816038312/page/204/mode/2up |page=204}}</ref>
== Casts == {| class="wikitable" |+ ! !Broadway (1957) !Television Special (1960) !Film Version (1971) !Australia (2005) !Musicals Tonight! (2006) |- !'''archy''' | style="text-align:center;" colspan="3" | Eddie Bracken |style="text-align:center;" | Michael Lindner | style="text-align:center;" | Lee Zarrett |- !'''mehitabel''' | style="text-align:center;" | Eartha Kitt | style="text-align:center;" | Tammy Grimes | style="text-align:center;" | Carol Channing |style="text-align:center;" | Jane Badler | style="text-align:center;" | Allyson Tucker |- !'''Big Bill''' | style="text-align:center;" | George S. Irving | style="text-align:center;" | Michael Kermoyan | style="text-align:center;" | Alan Reed |style="text-align:center;" | Matt Hetherington | style="text-align:center;" | Trent Armand Kendall |- !'''Tyrone T. Tattersall''' | style="text-align:center;" | Erik Rhodes | style="text-align:center;" | Jules Munshin | style="text-align:center;" | John Carradine |style="text-align:center;" | David Gauci | style="text-align:center;" | Justin Sayre |- !'''The Newspaperman''' | style="text-align:center;" | Julian Barry | style="text-align:center;" | Quentin Reynolds | style="text-align:center;" | Byron Kane |style="text-align:center;" | Robert Grubb | |- !'''Rusty''' | style="text-align:center;" | Cathryn Damon | style="text-align:center;" | Sondra Lee | colspan="3" align="center" bgcolor="grey" | |- !'''Broadway''' |[ style="text-align:center;" | Ross Martin | colspan="4" align="center" bgcolor="grey" | |}
==Songs== {{col-begin}} {{col-2}} ;Act I * Dance of the Cockroach - archy * What Do We Care? - mehitabel and Ensemble * Toujours Gai - mehitabel * Queer Little Insect - mehitabel and archy * Big Bill - Big Bill and Girls * True Romance - mehitabel and Big Bill * The Lightning Bug Song - archy * I Gotta Be - Broadway and archy * Dog And Cat Ballet - Ensemble * Flotsam and Jetsam - archy and mehitabel * Come to Mee-ow - Tyrone T. Tattersall * Suicide Song - archy * Shinbone Alley - Big Bill and Company{{col-break}} ;Act II * The Moth Song - archy * Vacant Lot Ballet - Ensemble * A Woman Wouldn't Be A Woman - mehitabel and Ensemble * The Lullaby - mehitabel and Girls * Mehitabel's A House Cat - archy, Big Bill, Tyrone T. Tattersall * Pretty Kitty - mehitabel and Girls * Be a Pussycat - mehitabel * The Lady Bug Song - Lady Bugs * Flotsam and Jetsam (Reprise) - archy and mehitabel * Shinbone Alley Finale - Company {{col-end}}
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==References== * Mandelbaum, Ken. ''Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops''. St. Martin's Press (1991), {{ISBN|0-312-06428-4}}, pp. 301–303
==External links== {{Commons category|Shinbone Alley (Manhattan)}} * {{ibdb title|id=2622|title=Shinbone Alley}} * {{IMDb title|qid=Q7497281|id=tt0067749|title=Shinbone Alley}} * {{tcmdb title|id=89934|title=Shinbone Alley}}
{{Mel Brooks}} {{Cockroach}}
Category:1957 musicals Category:Broadway musicals Category:Musicals by Mel Brooks Category:Adaptations of works by Don Marquis