Foxy (musical)

Foxy
Original Playbill
Music	Robert Emmett Dolan
Lyrics	Johnny Mercer
Book	Ian McLellan Hunter Ring Lardner, Jr.
Basis	Ben Jonson's play Volpone
Productions	1964 Broadway

Foxy is a musical with a book by Ian McLellan Hunter and Ring Lardner, Jr., lyrics by Johnny Mercer, and music by Robert Emmett Dolan.

Based on Ben Jonson's Volpone, it transports the original play's setting of early-17th century Renaissance Venice to the Yukon during the gold rush of 1898. When prospector Jim Fox confides in buddies Bedrock, Shortcut, and Buzzard that he's discovered a mother lode in the Klondike River, they set off to claim it as their own. Foxy and con man Doc Mosk join forces to swindle the greedy trio out of their stolen wealth. The two arrive in the Yukon with an enormous chest they claim is filled with gold and announce that Foxy is dying and looking to name an heir. As expected, the three begin to cater to their pal's every whim in the hope they'll be selected.

Subplots focus on Doc's affair with local madam Brandy; destitute Celia, who decides to sell herself to the highest bidder; and Bedrock's son Ben, who returns from Dartmouth College in time to save Celia and become involved in Foxy's shenanigans.

Foxy was tailored specifically for the talents of Bert Lahr, although his tendency to ad lib and insert slapstick antics into the proceedings were stifled by the creative team, a mistake given there wasn't much humor to be found within the dialogue. The tryout was scheduled not for venues in more traditional cities like Philadelphia or Boston but the practically unreachable Palace Grand Theatre in Dawson City. Co-produced by the Canadian government, which was anxious to promote tourism to the remote area, it ran for seven weeks in the summer of 1962, usually to a practically empty house, and its producers lost their $400,000 investment.