Promenade (musical)

Promenade
cover of the 1969 original off-Broadway cast album
Music	Al Carmines
Lyrics	María Irene Fornés
Book	María Irene Fornés
Productions	1965 New York City 1969 Off-Broadway 1983 Off-Broadway
Awards	OBIE Award for Distinguished Plays

Promenade was an experimental musical comedy with book and lyrics by María Irene Fornés and music by Rev. Al Carmines, originally produced off-Broadway by Edgar Lansbury and Joseph Beruh. In a review in The New York Times for a 1983 New York revival, Stephen Holden linked the production to the Theatre of the Absurd: "This work, which suggests a mixture of Candide and Samuel Beckett viewed through Lewis Carroll's looking glass, is a little too avant-garde and absurdist to appeal to mainstream tastes. But in its odd way it's an exquisite piece of musical theater."

Promenade premiered on April 9, 1965 at the Judson Poets' Theatre, Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square, NYC, where it played for three weekends.

It went on to a commercial run off-Broadway at the Promenade Theatre (for which it was named), produced by Edgar Lansbury and Joseph Beruh, opening on June 4, 1969. The cast was led by Madeline Kahn, playing the role of the Servant, also including Shannon Bolin, Ty McConnell, Gilbert Price, Alice Playten, Michael Davis, and Carrie Wilson. When Kahn left Promenade to make her first film What's Up, Doc?, she was replaced by Sandra Schaeffer, an unknown singer from the NYC Opera and understudied by Marie Santell. After Schaeffer, the producers brought in Pamela Hall (who went on to direct the revival of Promenade in 2010). After a successful run, Promenade closed on January 18, 1970 after 259 performances. Subsequently it was produced in Chicago under the direction of June Pyskacek by her theater, the Kingston Mines Theatre Co., where in 1971 the world premiere of "Grease" commenced its long run.