Shaping a song for the stage: How the early revue cultivated hits

Abstract

While working on The Passing Show of 1914, J. J. Shubert hired the young composer Sigmund Romberg to write his first full-length revue. Romberg worked closely with lyricist Harold Atteridge, and the two of them put together the song ‘Omar Khayyam’. The reviews for the show declared it a hit, and it was. This article explores the development and deployment of a musical hit in the making. Many sources are used to examine the ways in which the number was treated, including the song’s place in the show and the musical languages within the number. This article presents a ‘biography’ of a song from an early show through the lens of the full score. Not only can we see a song – specifically a revue song – being built up to be a hit, but we eventually see the number suffer from events that prevented opportunities for long-term success.