- Conducted the original Broadway stage production of "Porgy and Bess" in 1935, as well as the 1942 stage revival.
- He conducted the orchestra for the 1952 world tour of "Porgy and Bess", but not the LP featuring the tour's leads, Leontyne Price and William Warfield. He also never conducted a complete recording of the work, not even the pioneering 3-LP set issued in 1951.
- He conducted the original Broadway production of Virgil Thomson's "Four Saints in Three Acts".
- A recording of Smallens conducting a 1952 performance of "Porgy and Bess" was released in 2008 on a 3-CD set, by the Guild label. It is a live recording taken from the famous world tour of the opera starring Leontyne Price, William Warfield, and Cab Calloway. It is not literally a complete performance of the work, but it is a complete recording of that particular production.
- (September 1, 1950) He conducted George Balanchine's choreographed Tchaikovsky's ballet, "Theme and Variations," with Tudor's choreographed Schoenberg's ballet, "Pillar of Fire," Marius Petipa's choreographed Tchaikovsky's ballet, "Pas De Deux from The Sleeping Beauty," and Agnes De Mille's choreographed Aaron Copland's ballet, "Rodeo," in an American National Ballet Theatre production at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England with Alicia Alonso, Igor Youskevitch, Mary Ellen Moylan, James Mitchell, John Kriza, Allyn McLerie, and Charlyne Baker in the cast.
- (1942) He conducted George Gershwin's play, "Porgy and Bess," at the Hanna Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio.
- (May 17, 1954) He conducted the musical, "Porgy and Bess," at the Hanna Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio with Leontyne Price (Bess); LeVern Hutcherson (Porgy); Cab Calloway (Sportin Life); Helen Dowdy; Irene Williams; Elizabeth Foster; Georgia Burke; Helen Colbert; Joseph James; William Veasey; Leslie Scott; John McCurry; Howard Roberts; Moses LaMarr; Sam Kasakoff; Helen Thigpen; Catherine Ayres; Jerry Laws; Sherman Sneed; and Ray Yeates in the cast. Du Bose and Dorothy Heyward wrote the book. George Gershwin was composer. Du Bose Hayward and Ira Gershwin wrote the music and lyrics. Wolfgang Roth was set designer. Jed Mace was costume designer. Eva Jessye was choral director. Robert Breen was director. Blevins Davis and Robert Breen were producers.
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