All tagged Andy Griffith

Remembering Destry Rides Again

The musical western isn’t exactly a commonplace subgenre of the Broadway musical. Only a handful of westerns have been crafted for the musical stage, with varying results. The best known is of course Oklahoma!, followed by Paint Your Wagon. Other than that, the only other Broadway musical western that enjoyed a healthy run was  the 1959 also-ran Destry Rides Again. Based on the 1939 classic film of the same name, Destry Rides Again ran in a season that featured more celebrated titles such as The Sound of MusicGypsy, and Fiorello!, and it’s charms were lost in that shuffle. Still, it managed a run of 472 performances, which in 1959 was a respectable (if not impressive) stay on the Great White Way.