Get the Show on the Road - Theatre Etymology - Part 14

Get the show on the road means to get an activity started. This can be any activity. A parent may tell children to get the show on the road if they need to clean up the toys. That same parent may use the same phrase to the same children to get them to get going and get ready to leave for school. A teacher may say "Let's get this show on the road," meaning to get a class started. A director may say, "Let's get this show on the road" meaning to start a rehearsal or even at the very beginning of rehearsals. Another may not use the phrase until it is time for the show to open and only use the phrase for when the show opens, meaning for the show to get started and have a good run.

Get seems to come from the Middle English word geten which comes from the Old Norse word geta which means to obtain or to beget. It may also come from the Old English root -gietan (from the Middle English word yeten) or the German -gessen (as in vergessen which means to forget). The word show seems to come from the Middle English word showen, shewen, or schween meaning to look at or the Old English word scēawian meaning to look at. The word road seems to come from the Middle English word rode or rade or the Old English word rād meaning a riding or a journey on horseback.

The first recorded instance of the phrase seems to be from the 1951 novel From Here to Eternity by James Jones. It is loosely based on his experiences in the infantry from before Word War II. He wrote in it, "'Come on, come on,' Prew said, 'What's holding things up? Let's get this show on the road.'" However, it is thought that the phrase was in common use by the 1930s and came into use around 1910.

The reason for the phrase coming into use is though to be related to when a Broadway or West End theatre show started touring, so the show literally had to get on the road. There is also the possibility that the phrase came from the circus because it toured and literally had to get the show on the road. If I had actually written about this phrase first in my Theatre Etymology series, I could have said that I was getting the show on the road with the series.

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