Carnival in Flanders

• Reading (1952)
  New York, NY
• Original Broadway Production (1953)
  New York, NY

Click on the title for info on the song.

Original score

• Ring the Bell
• The Very Necessary You
• It's a Fine Old Institution
• I'm One of Your Admirers
• The Plundering of the Town
• The Stronger Sex
• The Sudden Thrill
• It's an Old Spanish Custom
• A Seventeen Gun Salute
• You're Dead!
• Here's That Rainy Day
  • aka Rainy Day [no note]
• Take the Word of a Gentleman
• The Carnival Ballet
• A Moment of Your Love
• How Far Can a Lady Go?

Cut prior to rehearsals

• There's Nothing Better Than Being in Love
• The Invasion of Antwerp
• Hannibal and the Mouse
• The Legend
• Battle Song
• What an Awful Chance You Take
• Battle March
• The Lost Love Lament
• The Ways of Men
• Ballet of Legend
• Love for Tonight
• Jealousy Ballet
• Duke's Farewell
• In Spite of All Your Faults

Cut prior to opening

• Unaccustomed As I Am
• Spanish Dance
• I Feel Like They Feel in Castile
• Small Things
• That Man is Doing His Worst to Make Good
• Something Better Than Being in Love
• It's a Matter of Military Tactic
• The Clean Light of Dawn

Based on the film La kermesse héroïque by Jacques Feyder (screenplay by Charles Spaak, Jacques Feyder and Bernard Zimmer)

It is 1616 in the town of Flacksenburg in Flanders (a region of modern-day Belgium).When the Spanish army marches into Flacksenburg, the mayor of the town decides to play dead in hopes that the army will leave. Plans become complicated when the head of the army, the Duke, becomes infatuated with the mayor's wife, Cornelia. The mayor is forced to continue to play dead and watch as the Duke pursues his wife.

Originally, Harold Arlen was approached to write the score. But, in the end Johnny Burke and James Van Heusen were hired. They had written many hit songs, but their last Broadway show, Nellie Bly (1946), flopped.

• La Kermesse Heroique (source material)