Marge appeared in several Broadway productions, but two that I found interesting were the 1943 George Balanchine production ‘What’s Up?’ and the 1946 ‘Beggar’s Holiday’, which included music by Duke Ellington and lyrics by John La Touche. ‘Beggar’s Holiday’ was Ellington’s only book musical and, according to the 2009 Opera Theater Pittsburgh revival program, “was the first racially-integrated Broadway musical, enduring nightly pickets and protests beneath the marquee in response to the production’s interracial romances and race-blind casting.” Photographs of some of Marge’s materials related to these productions can be seen below.

For “Beggar’s Holiday”:

For “What’s Up?”:

All images reproduced by Nicole Topich from the Marge Champion Collection at the Library of Congress Performing Arts Division.