About the Show

This 1929 Cole Porter musical offers a classic boy-meets-girl story set in the city of love. Part of "The Musicals in Mufti" series of minimally staged, script-in-hand productions of underappreciated Broadway musicals.

From the show:

The year is 1929, the month is June. It's the season when all the Americans invade Paris--and all the Parisians leave town. This classic boy-meets-girl musical set in the city of love introduced the world to such memorable Cole Porter favorites as “You Do Something to Me,” “You’ve Got That Thing,” and “The Tale of the Oyster.”

Originally opening on Broadway in 1929, FIFTY MILLION FRENCHMEN was one of Porter’s earliest hits and a precursor to his success that was to come. Irving Berlin was such a fan that he took out an advertisement calling FIFTY MILLION FRENCHMEN “the best musical comedy I have seen in years!” The York is delighted to kick off its Cole Porter Mufti celebration with this show, in the revised version created by Tommy Krasker and Evans Haile (York's Executive Director) for the 1991 Cole Porter Centennial, downplaying the original’s lavish production and emphasizing its remarkable score.

Critic Reviews (5)

"The York Serves Up Vintage Cole Porter With 'FIFTY MILLION FRENCHMEN'"
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"As was always the case, the crossbreeding of Porter and Paris yields a harvest of double entendres, here delivered with brio by a pair of standout performers…..A must for Porter fans and students of vintage musicals."
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"The 1929 hit is a whoop of joy from the late Jazz Age with one of Porter's sauciest, most impudent scores. And if the book, by Herbert Fields, isn't a humdinger, it doesn't overly get in the way of the fun, either. That said, this Mufti does screw a couple of things up."
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"However, even after all these years the show is both entertaining and smart and offers a pleasant evening in the theater. Another plus is that it features a great many top-drawer Cole Porter songs that will be unfamiliar to most theatergoers."
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"Kristy Cates, as an American tourist looking to be 'shocked' in Paris (that's literally the extent of her character development), runs away with the show…Porter's lyrics pop with their usual charm and occasional acerbity…most of the show feels snugly rooted in 1929."
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Cast and creative team

The York Theatre Company