I loved High Button Shoes, which is based on Stephen Longstreet's semi-autobiographical novel, The Sisters Liked Them Handsome. The Longstreets were a socially prominent family in New Brunswick, NJ, and I have no idea how much of the script is accurate, but i'm sure for the author and a lot of the audience in 1947 it was a nostalgic trip back to 1912.
The score is fun, the orchestrations really nice, and the show relies heavily on vaudeville actors doing their schtick. I find it equivalent to old comedia del'arte p[lays by Goldoni in which the serious actors acted their lines while the clowns improvised and adapted their comic business and dialogue to the necessities of the plot. Act One is the setup to the swindle which culminates in the great, and worth seeing over and over, zany Act Two Mack Sennett ballet, which is absolutely brilliant, accompanied with bits from Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies, Columbia the Gem of the Ocean, and other tunes. I'd go back tomorrow just for the ballet.
