Greenwillow

Greenwillow

Original Recording
Music Frank Loesser
Lyrics Frank Loesser
Book Lesser Samuels
Frank Loesser
Basis Novel by B. J. Chute
Productions 1960 Broadway

Greenwillow is a musical with a book by Lesser Samuels and Frank Loesser and music and lyrics by Loesser. The musical is set in the magical town of Greenwillow. It ran on Broadway in 1960.

Overview

Based on the novel by B. J. Chute, the musical is a fantasy, set in the magical town of Greenwillow. In Greenwillow, the eldest in each generation of Briggs men must obey the "call to wander", while the women they leave behind care for the home and rear their children in the hope that some day their husbands will return. Gideon loves his girlfriend, Dorrie, and would like nothing better than to settle down with her, and finds in the town's newest inhabitant, the Reverend Birdsong, an ally who will try to help him make his dream come true.

Production

The musical had a pre-Broadway try-out at the Shubert Theatre in Philadelphia. The musical opened on Broadway on March 8, 1960, at the Alvin Theatre. Hampered by lukewarm reviews, it closed on May 28, 1960, after 97 performances. The director was George Roy Hill and choreographer was Joe Layton, scenery by Peter Larkin and costumes by Alvin Colt. The cast included Anthony Perkins as Gideon Briggs, Cecil Kellaway, Pert Kelton, Ellen McCown as Dorrie Whitbred, William Chapman and Marian Mercer.[1][2]

This play was being rehearsed in New York while Anthony Perkins was simultaneously filming the Alfred Hitchcock classic shocker Psycho (1960) in Los Angeles. Over the years in interviews about the infamous shower scene in that film, Anthony Perkins has always said that during the whole week of filming required for that scene, his stand-in was used, because he was in New York rehearsing for a Broadway play. Greenwillow was that play.

The musical was presented by the York Theatre Company (New York City) in its "Musicals-in-Mufti" series in 2004. Peter Filichia said that the score was "grand" and noted that, in reviewing the original production, Brooks Atkinson in The New York Times wrote that 'Loesser has provided a warm and varied score that captures the simple mood'".[3]

Song list

Act I
  • "A Day Borrowed from Heaven"
  • "The Music of Home"
  • "Gideon Briggs, I Love You"
  • "The Autumn Courting"
  • "The Call to Wander"
  • "Summertime Love"
  • "Walking Away Whistling"
  • "The Sermon"
  • "Could've Been a Ring"
  • "Gideon Briggs, I Love You (Reprise)0
  • "Halloweve"
  • "Never Will I Marry"
  • "Greenwillow Christmas"
Act II
  • "The Music of Home (Reprise)"
  • "Faraway Boy"
  • "Clang Dang the Bell"
  • "What a Blessing"
  • "He Died Good"
  • "The Spring Courting"
  • "Summertime Love (Reprise)"
  • "What a Blessing (Reprise)"
  • "The Call"
  • "The Music of Home (Reprise)"

Awards and nominations

The musical received six Tony Award nominations:[2]

Cecil Kellaway won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical.[2]

Legacy

Barbra Streisand recorded "Never Will I Marry" for The Third Album in 1964,[4] and sang it live in her early club act.

Nancy Wilson also recorded "Never Will I Marry" on Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley.

Judy Garland performed "Never Will I Marry" frequently in the 1960s, including for her aborted 1962 album "Judy Takes Broadway" and on "The Judy Garland Show".

References

  1. ↑ Dietz, Dan.Greenwillow "The Complete Book of 1960s Broadway Musicals" (2014) (books.google.com), Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 144223072X, p.12
  2. 1 2 3 " Greenwillow on Broadway" playbillvault.com, accessed July 12, 2014
  3. ↑ Filichia, Peter. "Greater Loesser" theatermania.com, October 17, 2004
  4. ↑ Barbra Archives: Records/The Third Album

External links

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