Marx Brothers

Richmond Civic Theatre stage played host to the Marx Brothers.

One of the greatest classic Hollywood comedy teams of all time – The Marx Brothers - appeared onstage at RCT when it was ‘The Murray Theatre’ on the old vaudeville circuit. Ads in the September 1-4, 1916 issues of The Richmond Evening Item for The Four Marx Brothers attest they appeared for ‘a grand opening Labor Day’ for two performances.

The brothers likely honed shtick while here that later appeared in their first hit film, The Cocoanuts in 1929.

The fledging stars spent thirty years in vaudeville, starting as a singing act, before they changed to comedy and became masters of mayhem and mirth.

They went on to international fame and comic immortality in Hollywood films, and the Murray Theatre became the Richmond Civic Theatre… and flourished also, as a Richmond Institution of incalculable value.

 


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2012© - all rights reserved • Updated
June 19, 2012