Milk and Honey (musical)

Milk and Honey
Original Broadway Cast Album
Music	Jerry Herman
Lyrics	Jerry Herman
Book	Don Appell
Productions	1961 Broadway 1994 Off-Broadway

Milk and Honey is a musical with a book by Don Appell and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. The story centers on a busload of lonely American widows hoping to catch husbands while touring Israel and is set against the backdrop of the country's struggle for recognition as an independent nation. It was Herman's first Broadway book musical following a succession of off-Broadway revues.

Herman was playing the piano for Parade, his most recent revue following I Feel Wonderful and Nitecap, when he was approached by theatre producer Gerard Oestreicher, who was seeking a composer for a project about Israel he hoped to mount on Broadway. He sent Herman and Appell there to absorb the culture and hopefully find inspiration. Herman was determined that the musical not be a patriotic love letter, and while he liked most of what he saw during his visit, he incorporated some of what had not appealed to him ("rocks and dust and sand") into the lyrics of the title song.

Directed by Albert Marre, choreographed by Donald Saddler and orchestrated by Hershy Kay and Eddie Sauter, Milk and Honey began its pre-Broadway tryout run at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven on August 28, 1961. The critical reception was positive, but Herman felt leading lady Molly Picon, who clearly was an audience favorite, needed another song and composed "Chin Up, Ladies" for her. The company moved on to the Colonial Theatre in Boston, playing there from September 5 - 23.