George M. Cohan & Co.

Vibrant and rich with song and dance, this musical tells the life story of the master American showman, George M. Cohan. The framework for the story is an interview between an older Cohan and a persistent young college man named Walter Kerr who wants to write a play about Cohan. In 1937-38, Cohan enjoyed a tremendous success on Broadway, capping a spectacular 50-year career as an entertainer, songwriter, and playwright. Cohan had a good hunch about the admiring young man who would grow up to become a Pulitzer Prize-winning theater critic. Cohan regales Kerr, and the audience, with tales from life on the various vaudeville circuits to his days of theatrical stardom. Classic Cohan songs like “Mary’s a Grand Old Name,” “You’re a Grand Old Flag,” “Harrigan,” and “Forty-Five Minutes From Broadway,” are intermixed with rollicking Ragtime Era rediscoveries. By the play’s end, the older Cohan has let his young interviewer glimpse the real man behind the jaunty public persona. And in the process we also get a feel for a golden era of show business. This musical can be performed in an intimate format with just two strong singing actors, or with as many as ten actors representing figures in Cohan's memory including his two wives, family members, and several vaudevillians, all of whom appear judiciously to sing in certain numbers or to appear in pantomime bits. This show appeals to all ages. Cohan's music, pure Americana, is a joy and his rags-to-riches story is inspiring. Created by ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award-winning playwright Chip Deffaa, who is considered the foremost living authority on Cohan, this show was originally produced in New York.