At the Drop of Another Hat

At the Drop of Another Hat
Flanders (left) and Swann during their American tour, September 1966
MusicDonald Swann
LyricsMichael Flanders
BookMichael Flanders
Donald Swann

At the Drop of Another Hat is a musical revue by Flanders and Swann, similar in format to its long-running predecessor, At the Drop of a Hat (1956). In the show, they both sang on a nearly bare stage, accompanied by Swann on the piano. The songs were linked by contemporary social commentary, mostly by Flanders. Highlights included "Ill Wind", in which Flanders sings rapidly about a pilfered horn to the tune of the Rondo from Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 4 and "New Built Up Area", a soliloquy by Flanders in which a disgruntled resident of Salisbury Plain complains of the newly erected Stonehenge.[1]

The revue premiered at the Haymarket Theatre in London on 2 October 1963 and ran until 21 March 1964. It was revived on the West End, at the Globe Theatre, from 29 September 1965 to 19 February 1966.

The show toured widely, including tours in Australia (1964), Hong Kong and England (1965) and in 1966 Canada[2] and the US.[3] A Broadway production played at the Booth Theatre from 31 December 1966 to 9 April 1967.

  1. ^ Flanders & Swann: At the Drop of Another Hat. Allmusic, accessed 19 July 2011
  2. ^ Billboard, 17 December 1966, p. 56
  3. ^ At The Drop of Another Hat Archived August 5, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Flanders & Swann Online, accessed 19 July 2011