About the Show

In Cole Porter's 1940 comedy, a brassy nightclub owner must bid for the approval of her fiancé’s family. Part of The York's "The Musicals in Mufti" series of minimally staged, script-in-hand productions.

From the show:

Cole Porter and Ethel Merman teamed up for their fourth hit with 1940's PANAMA HATTIE, in which a brassy nightclub owner must bid for the approval of her fiancé’s family – a task only made more complicated when she discovers a plan to blow up the Panama Canal. With a raucous book about sailors and singers in the Panama Canal Zone and a snappy Porter score that includes “Let’s Be Buddies,” “I've Still Got My Health” and “Make It Another Old-Fashioned, Please,” PANAMA HATTIE was a smash in its day, but is now mostly known for its distinctly unfaithful film adaptation. In response to the original production, Brooks Atkinson in The New York Times stated, “if the Navy ever hears about Panama Hattie, it will be hard to keep the fleet in the Pacific. As far as that goes, it is going to be hard to keep New Yorkers at home in the evenings this Winter.”

Critic Reviews (6)

"Boffo Belter Klea Blackhurst Is In The Zone As Cole Porter's 'PANAMA HATTIE'"
Read more

"For whatever reason, book writers Herbert Fields and B.G. DeSylva decided it would be fun to have Merman running around in the tropics, doing what she usually did …. 'Panama Hattie' would have been more fun if it didn't have so much book, but Porter's score has some nifty items."
Read more

"Michael Montel directs efficiently, and the two-man orchestra, Deniz Cordell on piano and David White on bass, sounds swell. Panama Hattie is no lost treasure, but as a Merman vehicle it's solid, you'll probably never get to see it again, and in Klea Blackhurst we have perhaps the most capable Merman stand-in on the planet. Go."
Read more

3/5 Stars "The revival does entertain, but it simultaneously presents hard-and-fast proof why this 1940 musical isn’t a hot candidate for reviving—now or, perhaps, ever."
Read more

"As the third and last show of its Cole Porter Series, The York Theatre Company's Fall 2019 Musicals in Mufti is presenting Michael Montel's delightful production of this rarely revived musical comedy, a farce actually, as a staged concert with book in hand."
Read more

"The spirit of Ethel Merman-fearsome vibrato and wise-cracking wit intact-is alive and well at the York Theatre in Kylie Kuioka, the 9-year-old stick of dynamite who plays Geraldine, Hattie's fiery step-daughter-to-be."
Read more

Cast and creative team

The York Theatre Company

Producer