Jubilee

Jubilee The king- otherwise occupied with mastering a string trick- gets together with a famous party hostess (based on Elsa Maxwell) who includes him in her life of exclusive parties. The Queen becomes smitten with swimmer champion-turned-actor (based on Johnny Weissmuller) who is then doing jungle movies. The prince has his eyes set on a cabaret singer, Karon O’Kane. The princess finds herself indulged in a famous actor/playright/composer (based on Noel Coward). The family returns to rein once the supposed uprising proves to be a flop, and they bring their new friends with them. Cole Porter and Moss Hart’s Jubilee was released only two days after George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess which took two years of research concerning southern black Americans to write. A musical with such history and lasting facts, was not the intention of Jubilee. It is filled with so many references to the pop culture of the early 1930’s that you would have to be well over 80 years old for the majority of the references not to fly right over your head. Porter even references Gershwin outright by having the party hostess sing that the next party “twill be new in every way; Gershwin’s promised not to play.” This speaks on Gershwin’s reputation to hog the piano at gatherings. A young audience may not catch on to the original comedic value of Jubilee, but it is still said to be filled with enough entertaining tunes to satisfy a modern ear.