Ernest in Love

Ernest in Love
Original Cast Recording
Music	Lee Pockriss
Lyrics	Anne Croswell
Book	Anne Croswell
Basis	Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest
Productions	1960 Off-Broadway 2009 Off-Broadway

1960 Off-Broadway

Ernest in Love is a musical with a romantic love book and lyrics by Anne Croswell and music by Lee Pockriss. It is based on The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde's classic comedy of manners.

The two-act musical is an expanded version of the hour-long musical Who's Earnest? televised on The United States Steel Hour in 1957.

The 1959-1960 Off-Broadway season included a dozen musicals and revues including Little Mary Sunshine, The Fantasticks (based on an obscure 1894 work by Edmond Rostand, of Cyrano fame), and Ernest in Love, a musicalization of Oscar Wilde's 1895 hit. The production was directed by Harold Stone and choreographed by Frank Derbas. It opened on May 4, 1960, at the Gramercy Arts Theatre, where it was warmly received by the critics but ran for only 103 performances. The cast included Louis Edmonds as Algernon, John Irving as Jack, Leila Martin as Gwendolen, Gerrianne Raphael as Cecily, Sara Seegar as Lady Bracknell, Lucy Landau as Miss Prism, George Hall as Dr. Chausable, Christina Gillespie as Effie, and Alan Shayne as Lane. It was then revived thereafter in stock and amateur productions, at least into the early 1960s.

An original cast recording was released by Columbia Records. In 2003, a compact disc transfer was issued on the DRG label.

The Japanese all-female musical theatre troupe Takarazuka Revue staged the musical in 2005 in two productions, one by Moon Troupe (featuring the debut of Jun Sena and Kanami Ayano) the other one by Flower Troupe (the last production for Sakiho Juri for the company), and the other one by Flower Troupe (lead by Rio Asumi and featuring the debut of Maria Kano).