Our Wedding Day Lyrics — As Thousands Cheer

Song Overview

Review and Highlights

Quick summary

• Work: As Thousands Cheer (1933), a Broadway newspaper revue with sketches by Moss Hart and songs by Irving Berlin.
• Original singers: Marilyn Miller and Clifton Webb are listed with the number in original-production credits.
• Scene placement: A society wedding vignette, often indexed as outside St. Thomas Church, with ensemble build-in before the featured song.
• Modern recording footprint: The 1998 New York revival cast album includes the track, credited to an ensemble of the six-person revival cast.

As Thousands Cheer (1933) - stage revue - non-diegetic. This is Berlin doing what he did best when he wanted to make a room laugh without turning anybody into a cartoon: he writes the occasion straight, then lets the details snitch on everyone. The wedding is the kind newspapers once treated like a front-page event, all satin and social climbing, and the song behaves like a camera flash that keeps going off. The tune moves with tidy confidence, while the lyric keeps winking at the machinery behind the glamour: the planning, the posing, the public-relations grin that gets practiced the way other people practice scales.

It helps that the number sits inside a revue that thinks in headlines. A wedding write-up is a story type, and this is the musical version of that column: names, roles, procession cues, then the private cracks slipping through. As stated in Concord Theatricals materials, the show was designed to turn familiar newspaper sections into playable theatre, so a society wedding is not a detour. It is part of the format.

• Key takeaways:
• Keep the delivery bright and matter-of-fact. The humor lives in precision.
• Let ensemble passages read like a printed caption turned into sound.
• Play the romance and the social performance at the same time.

Creation History

As Thousands Cheer opened at the Music Box Theatre on September 30, 1933, and each scene arrived under a projected headline. This wedding vignette is documented in scene-order summaries as a society event tied to St. Thomas Church, with a group setup and then featured singing by the original stars. Decades later, the number gained a second life through the 1998 New York revival cast recording, where a reduced cast handled both ensemble texture and featured lines. Some secondary summaries disagree on whether the song was used in that revival, but multiple major-platform track listings show it present on the album and attributed to the revival cast.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Plot

A wedding procession forms, complete with bridesmaids and ushers, and the scene treats the ceremony like a public event as much as a personal one. The chorus material functions like a crowd report, while the featured lines sharpen the focus on the couple and the performance of happiness.

Song Meaning

The core idea is that a society wedding is part romance, part theater, part newspaper copy. The song does not mock love itself as much as the choreography around it: the polished entrances, the careful matching, the way people measure importance by who is seen where. Berlin sets it to music that feels orderly and ceremonial, then lets little human slips show through. In a Depression-era revue, that contrast carries extra weight: pageantry continues even when the world outside the church doors is unstable.

Annotations

"Our Wedding Day - Marilyn Miller, Clifton Webb."

Show number listing

This credit is a reminder that the song was written for star presence. Miller and Webb were not just voices, they were social types onstage, which makes the wedding satire sharper.

"Society Wedding of the Season - Outside St. Thomas - sequence includes ensemble and then the featured song sung by Miller and Webb."

Scene breakdown summary

The staging note explains the rhythm: first the public event, then the featured commentary. It is built like a newspaper photo spread where the caption leads into the close-up.

"Our Wedding Day - Kevin Chamberlin, Paula Newsome, Judy Kuhn, Mary Beth Peil, Howard McGillin, and B. D. Wong."

1998 cast recording track credit listing

This is the revival twist. With a small cast covering everything, the number becomes a quick-change showcase: chorus texture and character detail, traded back and forth like lines in a sketch.

Style, rhythm, and cultural touchpoints

Musically it sits in the revue sweet spot: clear pulse, clean phrasing, and enough lift for marching-and-procession imagery. Culturally, it leans on the era when society weddings were treated as public entertainment, written up with the same confidence as business news. That is why it lands inside this show. The whole revue is about how public life gets packaged and sold.

Production notes and staging logic

Textual fragments from circulating vocal-score scans show a moderate tempo marking, which fits the ceremony feel. The number also reads naturally as a choreographed entrance sequence: lines that can be assigned across bridesmaids, ushers, and featured singers without losing clarity.

Technical Information (Quick Facts)

• Song: Our Wedding Day
• Artist: As Thousands Cheer cast
• Featured: Original stage credits list Marilyn Miller and Clifton Webb; revival album track credits list the 1998 six-performer cast group
• Composer: Irving Berlin
• Producer: Bruce Kimmel (1998 cast recording release metadata credit)
• Release Date: September 30, 1933 (show opening date context); January 1, 1998 (cast album release metadata date)
• Genre: Musical theatre, topical revue number
• Instruments: Theatre orchestra or reduced revival band (arrangements vary by production)
• Label: Concord Theatricals (1998 cast album distribution metadata)
• Mood: Ceremonial, bright, socially observant
• Length: 3:18 (1998 cast album listings)
• Track #: 11 (1998 cast album listings)
• Language: English
• Album (if any): As Thousands Cheer (1998 Off-Broadway Cast Recording)
• Music style: Procession-like ensemble writing with featured character lines
• Poetic meter: Accentual, speech-led phrasing designed for clear punch lines and group cues

Frequently Asked Questions

Who wrote the song?

Irving Berlin wrote the music and lyrics as part of the As Thousands Cheer score.

Who is credited with it in the original Broadway production?

Original production listings associate the number with Marilyn Miller and Clifton Webb.

Where does the scene take place?

Scene-order summaries describe it as a society wedding set outside St. Thomas Church, staged as a public event.

Is it a standalone standard like "Heat Wave"?

Not usually. It is remembered more as a scene number tied to staging and ensemble cues than as an independent pop standard.

Is there a modern recording I can use for reference?

Yes. The 1998 New York revival cast album includes the track and credits the reduced cast ensemble.

Why does it fit the newspaper-revue idea so well?

A society wedding is a classic society-page item. The revue turns that kind of write-up into a staged scene, with music taking the role of narration and commentary.

Was it included in the 1998 revival stage version?

Some secondary summaries suggest it was cut, but multiple major-platform album listings show it present on the 1998 cast recording, indicating it was at least recorded as part of the revival project.

What is the best acting approach?

Play the event with straight-faced pride, then let the cracks show through timing, not mugging.

Additional Info

There is a fun irony in how this number survives. The show is a time capsule of 1933 headlines, and a society wedding headline is the kind of thing that usually fades first. But the craft keeps it alive: the scene is modular, it casts well, and it gives a company room to do stage pictures. Critics writing about late-1990s revival presentations often pointed out how well the piece played in a reduced format, where performers had to cover crowd, character, and commentary with quick shifts. According to Qsulis theater reviews of a 1998 season presentation, the material held up strongly in performance, with the cast praised for handling the range of styles in the revue.

It also sits in an interesting historical corner: Marilyn Miller's last Broadway season is tied to this revue, and production listings keep her name connected to the wedding vignette. That makes the number a small artifact of star-era Broadway, when a performer could turn a society-page gag into an event.

Key Contributors

Sources

Sources: IBDB production page for As Thousands Cheer, Playbill Vault production listing (1933), Wikipedia entry for As Thousands Cheer, Concord Theatricals show page, Apple Music listing for As Thousands Cheer (1998 Off-Broadway Cast Recording), Amazon track listing for the 1998 cast recording, Spotify album and track listings, Bruxellons scene breakdown page, Qsulis review archive (Lost Musicals 1998), Free Library of Philadelphia catalog record for the cast recording.