Vinyl plays with occasional light-crackles (play-graded). Cover looks great, light scuffing and surface impressions (front/back); a few tiny surface abrasions on front and slight discoloration with darker spots on back. Inner-sleeve is original (RCA Victor poly-lined paper). Spine is easy-to-read with mild wear. Little shelf-wear along bottom-edge, slightly more wear along top edge and corners; small tear near bottom right corner. Opening is crisp with signs of light use and a small divot near center. (Not a cut-out.)
Romberg The Student Prince opened on December 2, 1924, at Jolson's 59th Street Theatre on Broadway and became the most successful of Romberg's works, running for 608 performances. It was staged by J. C. Huffman and was the longest-running Broadway show of the 1920s. Even the classic Show Boat, the most enduring musical of the 1920s, did not play as long – it ran for 572 performances. Drinking Song, with its rousing chorus of "Drink! Drink! Drink!" was especially popular with theatergoers in 1924, as the United States was in the midst of Prohibition. Ernst Lubitsch made a silent film also based on Förster's work, titled The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, starring Ramón Novarro and Norma Shearer. Its orchestral score did not use any of Romberg's score, although it did include "Gaudeamus igitur". The operetta was revived twice on Broadway – once in 1931 and again in 1943. Mario Lanza's performance on the soundtrack of the 1954 MGM film The Student Prince renewed the popularity of many of the songs. Composer Nicholas Brodszky and lyricist Paul Francis Webster wrote three new songs for the film. Two of these songs – I'll Walk with God and Beloved, as well as Serenade – became closely associated with Lanza, although the role was played on screen by British actor Edmund Purdom, who mimed to Lanza's recordings.