Book by Mary Kyte with Mel Marvin and Gary Pearle
Type: Revue
Acts: Two
Cast Size: Small (2-10)
Orchestra Size: Small (1-11)
Chorus Required: No
Dancing Required: Yes, but minimal/optional
Difficulty: Easy to learn
Easy to sing
Style: Americana Blues/Jazz/Gospel
Cast Size: Small (2-10) 2 Men & 3 Women
Characters:
All the characters are based on real people of the times. With them, we journey through song across the history and culture of our nation at that time. They must be able to make an audience willing to go.
Teddy Roosevelt, the youngest man ever elected President (age 42), spunky, likable; baritone/ tenor
Charlie Chaplin, talented immigrant
Emma Goldman, a feminist and socialist
Anna Held, Florenz Ziegfeld’s enigmatic, gorgeous first wife; soprano
Susannah, a black domestic (based on Ziegfeld’s pioneering male star, Bert Williams)
"Tintypes features some of the great American standards and spirituals from the years 1890 to 1917, such as "Yankee Doodle Dandy," "Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight," "Meet Me in St. Louis," "In My Merry Oldsmobile," "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" and "Bill Bailey Won’t You Please Come Home." The songs are woven together with the stories of five archetypal characters from that era: a Chaplin-esque immigrant, socialist Emma Goldman, an African-American domestic worker, Teddy Roosevelt and Ziegfield Follies star Anna Held.
The musical, conceived by Mary Kyte with Mel Marvin and Gary Pearle, was originally performed on Broadway in 1980. Newsweek magazine called Tintypes "a sweet and loving revue in which five engaging performers become a human greeting card to the American past." The New York Times was equally lavish in its praise, saying it is a "cheerful musical portfolio filled with candid pictures of our Ragtime past."