Lady, Be Good (musical) Lady, Be Good (musical) Lady, Be Good! (title sometimes presented with an exclamation point) is a musical written by Guy Bolton and Fred Thompson with music by George and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. It was first presented on Broadway in 1924; the West End production followed in 1926. The story of the musical is about a brother and sister who are out of money; both are eager to sacrifice themselves to help the other. This was the first Broadway collaboration of the Gershwin brothers, and the Astaire siblings play a brother-sister dance team. "Lady, Be Good" premiered on Broadway at
Tchaikovsky (song) Stanisław Moniuszko, Witold Maliszewski and Leopold Godowsky are actually Polish, not Russian, but all three were born in what was then part of the Russian Empire. Ira Gershwin began his career writing lyrics for his brother George Gershwin. Ira, the more self-effacing of the Gershwin brothers, was concerned that music publishers might think that George had chosen him as lyricist on the basis of nepotism rather than talent, so Ira originally chose to write lyrics under the pseudonym "Arthur Francis" (derived from the names of his other brother Arthur and his sister Frances). The song was originally a nonsense poem