The Desert Song: Romance, Rebellion & The Railroad Hour
Tonight, in The Common Room, we follow The Desert Song across a remarkable century of popular entertainment.
Sigmund Romberg’s sweeping operetta opened on Broadway in 1926 and gave audiences masked heroes, desert adventure, impossible romance—and songs including “One Alone,” “The Riff Song,” and “The Desert Song.” Decades later, The Railroad Hour brought the story into American living rooms with Gordon MacRae, who would also star opposite Kathryn Grayson in the 1953 Warner Bros. film.
But why did The Desert Song endure?
We go behind the radio broadcast to explore the show’s Broadway origins…
The skinny
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