description: A musical reading of Cole Porter's classic 1940's hit from the 2002 Shaw Festival Musical Reading Series. Hattie Malone is a brassy nightclub singer in Panama. She tries to adapt to the upper-class world of her fiance, Nick Bullett, who is an officer in the armed forces. He is the divorced father of an 8-year-old girl. Hattie asks that he send for the girl before the wedding. She spends most of the first act trying to gain the child's approval of her as a future stepmother. In the 2nd act, she wins over Nick's boss, Whitney, by uncovering a plan to blow up the canal. There are many pre-war musicals that have slipped into obsecurity and here's one of the most In it's first run Panama Hattie was a fun and kooky musical vehicle for Ethel Merman. The score is both lively and catchy, with two big hits, I've Still got My Health and Make It Another Old-Fashioned.
language: English
title: Panama Hattie
titlecomplete: Panama Hattie (Shaw Festival)
publisher: Cbc Radio Canada