Count Me In

Today's show is a forgotton musical called Count Me In.

1. Count Me In opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theater on Oct. 8, 1942. It closed on Nov. 21, 1942 after only 61 performances. Not a hit by any means.

2. Count Me In had music by Ann Ronell and Will Irwin and lyrics by Ann Ronell. The book was by Leo Brady and a pre-critic Walter Kerr.

3. Count Me In is often categorized as a revue. While it contained many out of place specialty acts, it was in fact a book musical, albeit a slim book.

4. The story concerns the Brandywine family. Mama and the kids, with names like Sherry Brandywine (wah wah), Alvin York Brandywine and Teddy Roosevelt Brandywine, all work in various ways to help with the war effort. Papa, a map maker, feels he isn't doing as much as the rest of the family for the war. He eventually succeeds in helping when he creates a map citing the fictional city of Shangri-La. He then purposefully get captured and interned in a Japanese camp, where he convinces them, with help of the phoney map, to invade Shangri-La which is actually a place already occupied by the Allies and the Japanese are defeated. Although when he returns home he is initially thought a traitor, he is eventually cleared as celebrates at the local pub. You know, just your typical musical theatre plot...

5. The cast included a young Gower Champion as Teddy Roosevelt Brandywine, Charles Butterworth as Papa, Luella Gear as Mama, Hal Le Roy as Alvin York Brandywine and Joe E. Marks and Robert "Jaws" Shaw in the ensemble. Jack Gilford joined the cast during the run.

6. While the reviews were largely negative, (John Mason Brown of The World-Telegram said "Count me out!") critics did enjoy many of the performances and admired several numbers, including one called "Ticketyboo" which involved a kangaroo named Ickety Ticketyboo....yup

7. Ann Ronell, who wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the music, was one of the first successful female  Tin Pan Alley writers. She co-wrote the Disney song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf." Her most famous song was "Willow Weep For Me." She was romantically involved with George Gershwin at the time she wrote the song and there is much speculation that Gershwin was actually the author and gave Ms. Ronell the credit (and royalties) as a present. No evidence has come to light to prove this but the bluesy style of the song is very much in the Gershwin vein.

8. Count Me In began life at Catholic University in Washington D.C., produced by Reverend G.V. Hartkie. After the college run, songwriters Lester Lee and Jerry Seelan were brought in to help revise. They are thanked in the Playbill for unspecified assistance. Critics speculated that the original university run was more satiric but was then somewhat white-washed for mainstream Broadway audiences of the time.

Thanks to Richard Galgano for unearthing the pictures!