See America First

See America First
A Patriotic Comic Opera
Music	Cole Porter
Lyrics	Cole Porter
Book	T. Lawrason Riggs
Productions	1916 Broadway

See America First is a comic opera with a book by T. Lawrason Riggs and music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The first work by Porter to be produced on Broadway, it was a critical and commercial flop.

Porter and Riggs, classmates at Yale University, wanted to write a spoof of the patriotic George M. Cohan musicals that were popular at the time. They completed the bulk of their work at the Riggs home in New London, Connecticut, and the script underwent extensive changes between its first draft and the New York opening. Four of the songs were interpolated from the 1914 Yale revue Paranoia, or Chester of the Y.D.A.

The story focuses on Polly Huggins, whose xenophobic father, the wealthy United States Senator Huggins, sends her to a West Coast finishing school with the hope she will find a suitable husband. Polly, however, hopes to snare an English duke with whom she once exchanged furtive glances at a London opera house. Unbeknownst to her, the cowboy who is wooing her actually is her dream man, the Duke, in disguise. They become engaged. Polly's father is willing to adjust his principles when he falls in love with Sarah, the chaperone at her school.

See America First was produced by Elisabeth Marbury, directed by J. H. Benrimo, and choreographed by Edward Hutchinson and Theodore Kosloff. Anne Morgan, the daughter of J. P. Morgan, and interior decorator Elsie de Wolfe were among its financial backers. Prior to opening on Broadway, it was staged in Schenectady, Albany, and Rochester in Upstate New York, New Haven, Connecticut, and Providence, Rhode Island.

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