I have seen Rhapsody in Blue many times and I aa still wondering who the actors and singers are in the Blue Monday sequence.
This was the for-runner of Porgy and Bess and may have been performed by 'white performers in black-face.' Does any one know?
The Membran Records 10-CD boxed set of Gershwin recordings includes excerpts from "Rhapsody in Blue" and credits the "Blue Monday" performance to "John B. Hughes and the Warner Bros. Studio Chorus." But neither this album nor any other sources I've consulted have the name of the marvelous woman's voice in the sequence.
Incidentally, the Membran box also includes a full-length performance of "Blue Monday" by Williams Haskins, Bazemore Washington and Tussel Thomas with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, conducted by Marc Andreae, with François-Joel Thiollier playing piano. There's an even better "Blue Monday" that the Gregg Smith Singers recorded for a Vox LP in the 1970's, but I don't know if that one is available on CD.
I think Charlie Cantor plays a waiter (in blackface). John B. Hughes is the announcer at the end of the picture. He is not in the BLUE MONDAY sequence.
shareI'd particularly like to know who played the part of "Vi" in that sequence.
shareAnn Brown, who also played the part of Bess in a Porgy And Bess excerpt shown later in this film, also played Vi in Blue Monday albeit strangely uncredited.
shareAnn Brown who sings "Summertime" in the Porgy and Bess sequence is NOT the same actress who plays Vi in the Blue Monday number. The face is different, the voice is different, the legs are different. But who is the actress who plays Vi, she is wonderful too.
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