Coram Boy (play)

Coram Boy is a play written by Helen Edmundson with music composed by Adrian Sutton, based on the 2000 children's novel of the same name by Jamila Gavin, an epic adventure that concerns the theme of child cruelty. The play is called a "play with music", rather than a musical.

The action takes place in the eighteenth century. The benevolent Thomas Coram has recently opened a Foundling Hospital in London called the "Coram Hospital for Deserted Children". Unscrupulous men, known as "Coram men", take advantage of the situation by promising desperate mothers to take their unwanted children to the hospital for a fee. The story follows a range of characters, focusing on two orphans: Toby, saved from an African slave ship; and Aaron, the deserted son of the heir to an estate, as their lives become closely involved with this true and tragic episode of British social history.

The show was first staged at the National Theatre in London from November 2005 until February 2006. It returned to the National Theatre from November 2006 to February 2007.

The play then moved to Broadway at the Imperial Theater, starting previews in April 2007, and officially opening for a month-long run in May 2007. The show was nominated for six Tony Awards but did not win any.

Melly Still was the director and co-designer (with Ti Green) of both the London and New York productions with Paule Constable designing lighting and Chris Schutt on sound. Still also directed the December 2011 production for Bristol Old Vic at the Colston Hall and the production was designed by Anna Fleischle, with lighting by Bruno Poet, and sound by Schutt. Adrian Sutton composed the music for all four versions.

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