That's how the legendary John Barrymore responds when he learns what he must do to get a lucrative radio contract. The "Great Profile", hamming it up with some green eggs, must train Kyser in the art of Shakespeare, so it is no surprise that when Kay tells Ishkabibble he's reading Shakespeare, Ishkabibble asks, "Who wrote it?" Melodramatic Barrymore steals every moment he's in, parodying himself, and highly resembling in face and manner his brother Lionel. "I've been in the public eye so long, it has become permanently bloodshot!", he quips, with his agent Patsy Kelly fully in agreement, telling someone how great Barrymore was in "Thirteenth Night", and after being corrected ("Twelfth Night"), Kelly cracks, "He was so good that they held him over."
There's also a great comedy bit between a social climbing matron and radio sponsor husband who responds to his wife's snooty comment, "I wasn't born in Brooklyn" with "Well, it ain't any better than the Bronx!". May Robson is back as Kay's feisty grandmother who comments on seeing Barrymore on the stage when she was just a girl, a theft of a joke from "Dinner at Eight", a movie that both Robson and Barrymore were in. Lupe Velez takes her "Mexican Spitfire" character one step further by making her a lady bullfighter hired by her abused lover Barrymore to tire out Kyser so he'll be unable to perform on stage in "Romeo and Juliet" which he eventually spoofs in a musical sequence, "Romeo Smith and Juliet Jones", long before the update for the Broadway stage as "West Side Story".
There's also a very funny dream sequence where Kyser dreams of all of the characters in Shakespeare plays, something which Barrymore (the character) would claim having the Bard rolling in his grave. This is one of those light-hearted musicals that will not be for all tastes (especially if you are not a Kay Kyser fan) but with this delightful cast of comic nuts, there should be something for everyone, even if it is at the expense of ribbing the most popular playwright in history.
There's also a great comedy bit between a social climbing matron and radio sponsor husband who responds to his wife's snooty comment, "I wasn't born in Brooklyn" with "Well, it ain't any better than the Bronx!". May Robson is back as Kay's feisty grandmother who comments on seeing Barrymore on the stage when she was just a girl, a theft of a joke from "Dinner at Eight", a movie that both Robson and Barrymore were in. Lupe Velez takes her "Mexican Spitfire" character one step further by making her a lady bullfighter hired by her abused lover Barrymore to tire out Kyser so he'll be unable to perform on stage in "Romeo and Juliet" which he eventually spoofs in a musical sequence, "Romeo Smith and Juliet Jones", long before the update for the Broadway stage as "West Side Story".
There's also a very funny dream sequence where Kyser dreams of all of the characters in Shakespeare plays, something which Barrymore (the character) would claim having the Bard rolling in his grave. This is one of those light-hearted musicals that will not be for all tastes (especially if you are not a Kay Kyser fan) but with this delightful cast of comic nuts, there should be something for everyone, even if it is at the expense of ribbing the most popular playwright in history.