Broadway musicals with the spotlight on Long Island
Long Island inventor and entrepreneur Joy Mangano is the subject of a musical that's in its planning stages. Credit: Getty Images / Jamie McCarthy
Can a show about the inventor of the Miracle Mop clean up on Broadway? Time will tell.
Last week, “Once on This Island” producer Ken Davenport announced that he was developing a musical about Joy Mangano, the St. James entrepreneur whose life story was already made into the 2015 movie “Joy” starring Jennifer Lawrence. Though the musical is still in the early development phase, here are some other song-and-dance affairs that put Long Islanders in the Broadway spotlight.
YIP YIP YAPHANK (August-September 1918) Yup, yup, Yaphank was the location for this Irving Berlin musical revue which was created as a fundraiser to construct a community building at Camp Upton, the boot camp for soldiers during World War I where Berlin was stationed. Though the show earned $80,000 (or $1.4 million adjusted for inflation), the building never materialized. The show did produce two Berlin standards — “Mandy” and “Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning.”
TEDDY & ALICE (November 1987-January 1988) Len Cariou starred as the 26th U.S. president and Oyster Bay resident in this short-lived tunefest adapted from the music of John Philip Sousa. The plot centered on the battle of wills between Roosevelt and his rebellious daughter Alice (Nancy Hume).
MOVIN’ OUT (October 2002-December 2005) It doesn’t get more Long Island than a jukebox musical featuring the songs of Billy Joel. The plot centered on teens growing up in the 1960s and naturally had characters like high school sweethearts Brenda and Eddie, Sgt. O’Leary and. of course, Anthony. For the final show, Joel made a surprise appearance and performed at the curtain call.
GREY GARDENS (November 2006-July 2007) This Tony Award-winning musical was adapted from the Maysles brothers classic 1975 documentary about “Big Edie” and “Little Edie” Bouvier Beale, the eccentric relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis living in squalor in a dilapidated East Hampton mansion.
