Call Me Madam

Call Me Madam is a musical with a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse and music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. A satire on politics and foreign affairs that spoofs America's penchant for lending billions of dollars to needy countries, it centers on Sally Adams, a well-meaning but ill-informed socialite widow who is appointed US Ambassador to the fictional European country of Lichtenburg. While there, she charms the local gentry, especially Cos... more

Call Me Madam is a musical with a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse and music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. A satire on politics and foreign affairs that spoofs America's penchant for lending billions of dollars to needy countries, it centers on Sally Adams, a well-meaning but ill-informed socialite widow who is appointed US Ambassador to the fictional European country of Lichtenburg. While there, she charms the local gentry, especially Cosmo Constantine, while her press attaché Kenneth Gibson falls in love with Princess Maria. The musical was inspired by the 1949 appointment of Washington, D.C. hostess and Democratic Party fundraiser Perle Mesta as the Ambassador to Luxembourg, although the Playbill distributed at each performance humorously noted that "neither the character of Mrs. Sally Adams nor Miss Ethel Merman resemble any person living or dead." After a tryout period in New Haven, Connecticut, the Broadway production, directed by George Abbott and choreographed by Jerome... less