Song of Norway

Song of Norway
Music	Edvard Grieg adapted by: Robert Wright George Forrest
Lyrics	Robert Wright George Forrest
Book	Milton Lazarus and Homer Curran
Productions	1944 Broadway 1945 West End 1970 Film

Song of Norway is an operetta written in 1944 by Robert Wright and George Forrest, adapted from the music of Edvard Grieg and the book by Milton Lazarus and Homer Curran. A very loose film adaptation with major changes to both the book and music was released in 1970.

Song of Norway was originally developed and presented in Los Angeles by Edwin Lester's Los Angeles Civic Light Opera in 1944, with essentially the same cast as seen later on Broadway. After successful runs in Los Angeles and San Francisco, the show opened at the Imperial Theatre in New York on August 21, 1944, and ran for 860 performances. Lawrence Brooks starred as Edvard Grieg. It was also popular in London running for 526 performances at the Palace Theatre, the first Broadway show to cross the Atlantic after the end of the Second World War.

The show is set in and around Norway in Troldhaugen and Bergen; as well as Copenhagen and Rome in and after 1860. It follows the fictionalized lives of three childhood friends: Edvard Grieg (played in New York by Lawrence Brooks), Nina Hagerup (Helena Bliss) and Rikard Nordraak (Robert Shafer). The play tells of the early struggles of Edvard Grieg and his attempts to develop an authentic Norwegian national music. Grieg dreams of being a great composer and these dreams are shared by his friend Nordraak and Grieg's sweetheart, Nina. Grieg is lured to Italy by the great prima donna Louisa Giovanni, but he finds he cannot create amid all the glitter and excitement and so returns to Norway and his beloved Nina to write his music.

...
Wikipedia