Good News (musical): History and Key Facts

Good News is a musical comedy in two acts with a book by Laurence Schwab and B.G. DeSylva, lyrics by DeSylva and Lew Brown, and music by Ray Henderson. The story is set in the Roaring Twenties at Tait College, where football star Tom Marlowe falls in love with studious Connie Lane, who is tutoring him so he can pass astronomy and be eligible to play in the big game.

The show opened on Broadway in 1927, the same year as Show Boat, but though its plot was decidedly old-fashioned in comparison to Show Boat and its daring storyline, it was also a hit. Good News spawned two films, one in 1930, starring Bessie Love and one in 1947 starring June Allyson; an unsuccessful 1974 Broadway revival, and a 1993 updated production by Music Theatre of Wichita, which created a largely new libretto and made changes to the score. It proved to be DeSylva, Brown, and Henderson's biggest hit out of a string of topical musicals.

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