Pleasures and Palaces.
Pleasures and Palaces is a stage musical based on the play Once There Was a Russian by Sam Spewack.
Cast[]
- Jack Cassidy - Grigori Alexandrovich Potemkin
- Hy Hazell - Empress Catherine II of Russia
- John McMartin - John Paul Jones
- Phyllis Newman - Sura
- Leon Janney - Bureyev
- Mort Marshall - Kollenovitch
- Eric Brotherson - Radbury
- Sammy Smith - Von Siegen
- Woody Romoff - Polgunov
Plot[]
In this comic look at actual historical events, John Paul Jones enters into the service of the Empress Catherine II of Russia in 1788, specifically to fight the Turks and recapture Constantinople for Russia, and becomes involved in political intrigue and romantic complications. Catherine is in love with Grigori Alexandrovich Potemkin, who is enamored with the murderous Sura, who finds herself torn between Potemkin and Jones.
Musical numbers[]
- Act I
- "Salute" - Potemkin's Militia
- "I Hear Bells" - Potemkin & Militia
- "My Lover Is a Scoundrel" - Catherine
- "To Marry" - John Paul Jones
- "Hail Majesty" - Suburbanites
- "Thunder and Lightning" - Potemkin & Sura
- "To Your Health" - Radbury & Von Siegen
- "Turkish Delight" - Dancing Girls
- "Neither the Time Nor the Place" - Potemkin & Catherine
- "In Your Eyes" - Sura & Jones
- "Truly Loved" - Catherine
- "The Sins of Sura" - Sura & the Court
- Act II
- "Hoorah for Jones" - Civilians & Sailors
- "Propaganda" - Kollenovitch, Jones & Bystanders
- "Barabanchik" - Potemkin, Kollenovitch & Militia
- "What Is Life?" - Kollenovitch & Bureyev
- "Ah, to Be Home Again" - Jones & Prisoners
- "Pleasures and Palaces" - Sura
- "Tears of Joy" - Potemkin, Catherine, Polgunov & the Court
- "Far, Far, Far Away" - Potemkin, Sura & Kollenovitch
- "What Is Life? (And Again)" - Potemkin, Sura & Kollenovitch