Little Nellie Kelly (musical)

Little Nellie Kelly
Cover of sheet music, 1922
Music	George M. Cohan
Lyrics	George M. Cohan
Book	George M. Cohan
Basis	Romance
Productions	1922–1923 Broadway 1923–1924 West End

Little Nellie Kelly was a two-act musical comedy of the Roaring Twenties, written, produced and directed by George M. Cohan. After opening in Boston in July 1922, it had long runs on Broadway in 1922–1923, in the West End of London in 1923–1924, and on tours.

Nellie Kelly is the daughter of a New York City Irish-American police officer, Captain John Kelly. After taking a job in DeVere's Department Store, she is seen and admired by the young millionaire and man-about-town Jack Lloyd. However, she is already loved by Jerry Conroy, a laborer who like her is Irish. When she refuses Lloyd's request for a date, he invites all the store's employees to a party at a house on Fifth Avenue belonging to his aunt, the redoubtable Mrs. Chesterfield Langford, with a view to getting to know Nellie better, and Conroy attends the party uninvited. During the evening, a valuable string of pearls belonging to Mrs. Langford is stolen, and suspicion falls on Conroy, while Lloyd pursues Nellie. In the end Conroy's name is cleared and the course of true love leads Nellie to refuse Lloyd and fall into the arms of Conroy.

The musical contains the hit song "Nellie Kelly, I Love You", sung by Conroy, who also sings "You Remind Me of My Mother". Other songs include "All in the Wearing", "Dancing My Worries Away", "Till My Luck Comes Rolling Along", "They're All My Boys", "The Voice in My Heart", "The Busy Bees of DeVere's" and "The Dancing Detective".

A song-book, including the music and lyrics of all the show's songs, was published in 1922 by M. Witmark & Sons of New York.

Little Nellie Kelly opened at the Tremont Theatre, Boston, on 31 July 1922 and arrived at the Liberty Theatre on Broadway on 13 November 1922, where it ran for nine months. Its total of 276 performances in New York was more than for any of George M. Cohan's other musicals.

Towards the end of February 1923, C. B. Cochran announced plans for a separate production of the show to open at the New Oxford Theatre in London's West End on 20 April, following a five-week run of D. W. Griffith's film One Exciting Night at the same venue. By 26 April no firm opening date had been fixed, but Roy Royston, Anita Elson, and the Forde Sisters had been engaged to appear. At the end of June the opening of the show was finally announced for the New Oxford Theatre on 2 July, with the cast listed. It ran in London until 16 February 1924, with a total of 255 performances.Little Nellie Kelly was succeeded at the New Oxford by the film Three Weeks, after which the company presented the show in other theatres. At the beginning of April 1924 it was playing at the Golders Green Hippodrome.