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Shinbone Alley is a musical with a book by Joe Darion and Mel Brooks, lyrics by Darion, and music by George Kleinsinger.

Based on archy and mehitabel, a series of New York Tribune columns by Don Marquis, it focuses on poetic cockroach archy, alley cat mehitabel, and her relationships with theatrical cat tyrone t. tattersal and tomcat big bill.

The project began life in 1954 as a Columbia Records concept album with Marquis' original title, featuring Eddie Bracken, Carol Channing, and David Wayne. That same year a concert version was presented by the Little Orchestra Society at The Town Hall in New York City.

With an expanded book, the addition of several lengthy ballet sequences, and a cast of animal characters, the rechristened Shinbone Alley preceded Cats by a couple of decades but definitely was a precursor of the far more successful Andrew Lloyd Webber hit. It was one of the first Broadway shows to feature a fully integrated cast.

Following "creative differences" with the writers and producers, original director Norman Lloyd requested that his name be removed from the credits.

With benefit of neither an out-of-town tryout nor a preview period, the Broadway production, supervised by Sawyer Falk and choreographed by Joe and Rod Alexander, opened on April 13, 1957 at The Broadway Theatre, where it ran for 49 performances. The cast included Bracken, reprising his role as archy, Eartha Kitt as mehitabel, Erik Rhodes as tyrone, and George S. Irving as big bill. Supporting players included Cathryn Damon, Jacques d'Amboise, Ross Martin, Lillian Hayman, and Allegra Kent. Relative newcomer Chita Rivera was Kitt's standby.

The show's sole Tony Award nomination was for Best Costume Design. In lieu of a cast album recorded in a studio, a tape of a live performance was transferred to acetate and released on the Legend label.

On May 16, 1960, an abridged version of the musical was broadcast under the original title archy and mehitabel as part of the syndicated anthology series Play of the Week presented by David Susskind. The cast included Bracken, Tammy Grimes, and Jules Munshin [1].

Bracken and Channing reunited to provide the voices for a 1971 animated feature film entitled Shinbone Alley [2].

Act 1

• What Do We Care?
• Toujours Gai
• Queer Little Insect
• Big Bill
• True Romance
• The Lightning Bug Song
• I Gotta Be
• Flotsam and Jetsam
• Come to Mee-ow
• Suicide Song
• Shinbone Alley

Act II

• The Moth Song
• A Woman Wouldn't Be a Woman
• The Lullaby
• What the Hell
• Pretty Kitty
• Way Down Blues
• The Lady Bug Song
• Be a Pussycat
• Quiet Street
• Toujours Gai (Reprise)

Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops by Ken Mandelbaum, published by St. Martin's Press (1991), pages 301-303 (ISBN 0-312-06428-4)

Internet Broadway Database listing