Plain and Fancy

... Director	Morton Da Costa
... Dances and Musical Numbers	Helen Tamiris

Cast

... Ruth Winters	Shirl Conway
... Dan King	Richard Derr
... Katie Yoder	Gloria Marlowe
... Papa Yoder	Stefan Schnabel
... Isaac Miller	Sammy Smith
... Emma Miller	Nancy Andrews
... Ezra Reber	Douglas Fletcher Rodgers
... Hilda Miller	Barbara Cook
... Peter Reber	David Daniels
... Samuel Zook	Daniel Nagrin

Act One

Act Two

Additional Musical Numbers Lists

No additional musical numbers lists yet.

The production suffered from Broadway theatre shortages during much of its run.

Trouble Finding a Theatre in Which to Open

First, it had trouble finding a theatre in which to open. Finally, the producers settled on the Mark Hellinger, even though they knew the show would have to leave it soon after opening there. The Hellinger's owner, Anthony B. Farrell, was preparing for production a show titled Ankles Aweigh, which he planned to open there in April 1955. So the producers of Plain and Fancy opened the show there, and then moved it to Winter Garden as soon as Peter Pan closed there on February 26. This was announced as the plan even before Plain and Fancy opened out of town.

Another Move

Unfortunately (and foolishly), the owners of the Winter Garden then booked The Vamp, forcing Plain and Fancy to move again. As Ankles Aweigh had not been a success, the Hellinger was again available, at least temporarily, so Plain and Fancy moved back to where it had opened.

A Little Show Called My Fair Lady

We don't know whether the producers of Plain and Fancy knew when they returned to the Hellinger that another show — a little thing called My Fair Lady — would open there in March. Perhaps they hoped that My Fair Lady would be such a disaster that it would close out of town. When it was certain that Plain and Fancy could not stay at the Hellinger past early March, the producers considered moving it back to the Winter Garden, which was again available as The Vamp had not been a success. But a move back to the Winter Garden would have been only temporary as Shangri-La had been booked to open there on May 30. (As it turned out, severe out-of-town problems delayed the opening of Shangri-La till June 13. It closed on June 30.)

Instead of moving to the Winter Garden on yet another interim booking, the producers of Plain and Fancy decided to close the Broadway production and send out a new tour, even though the Broadway production was still doing decent (although hardly sell-out) business. A tour of the show had already gone out the previous August. The producers closed that tour on February 11. On March 6, three days after the Broadway closing, a new tour opened, combining members of the closing Broadway cast with cast members of the first tour.

Main Run

• Mark Hellinger Theatre (New York, NY)
  January 27, 1955 - February 26, 1955
• Winter Garden Theatre (New York, NY)
  February 28, 1955 - November 7, 1955
• Mark Hellinger Theatre (New York, NY)
  November 9, 1955 - March 3, 1956

Tryout

• Shubert Theatre (New Haven, CT)
  December 11, 1954 - December 18, 1954
• Shubert Theatre (Philadelphia, PA)
  December 21, 1954 - January 22, 1955

Commercial Recordings

• Original Broadway Cast (1955)
  Shirl Conway , Richard Derr , John Dennis , Chris Robinson (i) , Gloria Marlowe

Private Recordings

• No private audio listed yet.

Broadcast Recordings

• No broadcast audio listed yet.

Archival Recordings

• No archival audio listed yet.