Watch Your Step

The Oxford Companion to American Theatre | 2004 | 700+ words | Copyright

Watch Your Step (1914), a musical comedy by Harry B. Smith (book), Irving Berlin (music, lyrics). [New Amsterdam Theatre, 175 perf.] The plot, which dealt with the attempts of some heirs to meet the terms of a musical comedy will, was so slight that many critics perceived the show as a revue. Smith acknowledged its slightness in his often quoted credit, “Plot (if any) by Harry B. Smith.” The show's importance rests with its music. Berlin provided a score almost entirely in a ragtime idiom. Coming just four months after Jerome Kern established the pattern for the modern ballad with “They Didn't Believe Me” in The Girl from Utah, this score consolidated the vogue for show songs written in a totally American style, most often deriving from black musical tradition. With Irene and Vernon Castle in leading roles, it also promoted both the contemporary “dance craze” and show songs created as much for ballroom dancing as for singing. Notable songs: Simple Melody; Syncopated Walk.

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Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Watch Your Step." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Watch Your Step." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-WatchYourStep.html

Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Watch Your Step." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-WatchYourStep.html

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