For the 1957 film, see Silk Stockings .

Silk Stockings is a musical with a book by George S. Kaufman, Leueen MacGrath, and Abe Burrows and music and lyrics by Cole Porter.

Loosely based on the Melchior Lengyel story Ninotchka and the 1939 film adaptation it inspired, it focuses on special envoy Nina Yaschenko, who is dispatched from the Soviet Union to rescue three foolish commissars from the pleasures of Paris. Romanced by theatrical agent Steven Canfield, she eventually comes to recognize the virtues of capitalist indulgence. Other characters include Peter Boroff, Russia's greatest composer, who is being wooed by Peggy Dayton, America's swimming sweetheart, to write the score for her first non-aquatic picture, a musical adaptation of War and Peace.

Following tryouts in Philadelphia, Boston, and Detroit, the Broadway production, directed by Cy Feuer and choreographed by Eugene Loring, opened on February 24, 1955 at the Imperial Theatre, where it ran for 478 performances. The cast included Hildegarde Neff, Don Ameche, Gretchen Wyler, George Tobias, David Opatoshu, Julie Newmar, and Onna White. Jan Sherwood eventually replaced Neff as Ninotchka and also portrayed the role for the show's first national tour. An original cast recording was released by RCA Victor.

Song list

Act I

• Too Bad
• Paris Loves Lovers
• Stereophonic Sound
• It's a Chemical Reaction, That's All
• All of You
• Satin and Silk
• Without Love
• All of You (Reprise)

Act II

• Hail, Bibinski
• As On Through the Seasons We Sail
• Josephine
• Siberia
• Silk Stockings
• The Red Blues
• Too Bad (Reprise)

External links