Betsy

• Original Broadway Production (1926)
  New York, NY

Click on the title for info on the song.

Original score

• Characteristic Dances
• The Kitzel Engagement
• My Missus
• Stonewall Moskowitz March
• One of Us Should Be Two
• Sing
• In Our Parlor on the Third Floor Back
• This Funny World
• The Tales of Hoffman
• Follow On
• Borrah Minnevitch and His Harmonica Symphony Orchestra
• National Dances
  • aka Nations Patter [no note]
• Push Around
• Bugle Blow
• I Guess I Should Be Satisfied
• Cradle of the Deep
• If I Were You
• Blue Skies
• Leave It to Levy
• First We Throw Moe Out
• Rhapsody in Blue
• Birds on High
  • aka Birds Up High [no note]
• Shuffle
• Dance Specialty
• Song Specialty
• Transformation

Cut prior to opening

• Show Me How to Make Love
• At the Saskatchewan
• A Ladies' Home Companion
• You're the Mother Type
• Six Little Kitzels
• In Variety
• Don't Believe
• Is My Girl Refined?

Cut prior to New York opening

• Come and Tell Me
• Burn Up
• Social Work
• Viva Italia
• Melican Man, A

On New York’s Lower East Side, Betsy is without the prospect of a husband. Mama Kitzel therefore asserts that none of her other children — Louie, Moe, Joe and Ruth — shall  marry till Betsy has improved her condition. The children find a bird fancier named Archie. They lavish much care on him, but he falls in love with Ruth. Betsy’s interest in the stage and some clever maneuvering combine to effect a happy ending. (Adapted from Stanley Green’s synopsis in the Rodgers and Hammerstein Fact Book.)