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For the garment, see Stocking. For the 1990s police drama, see Silk Stalkings.

An ad for the original Broadway production features Hildegarde Neff in the arms of Don Ameche

Original cast recording

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 Janice 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. An original cast recording was released by RCA Victor.

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)

1957 film version on DVD

The 1957 MGM feature film, adapted by Leonard Gershe and Leonard Spigelgass and directed by Rouben Mamoulian, starred Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Janis Paige, Peter Lorre, and Jules Munshin. It received Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Film and Best Actress (Charisse) in the Comedy/Musical category.

The score was embellished with the song "The Ritz Roll and Rock," a parody of the then-emerging rock and roll genre. The number ends with Astaire symbolically smashing his top hat, an article of clothing that was considered one of his trademarks, signalling his retirement from movie musicals, which he announced following the film's release. Eleven years later he returned to the genre one last time, appearing opposite Petula Clark in Francis Ford Coppola's Finian's Rainbow.

• Silk Stockings at The Internet Broadway Database
• Silk Stockings at the Internet Movie Database