The Happy Time (musical)
| The Happy Time | |
|---|---|
| Music | John Kander |
| Lyrics | Fred Ebb |
| Book | N. Richard Nash |
| Basis |
Samuel A. Taylor's play The Happy Time |
| Productions | 1967 Los Angeles 1968 Broadway 1980 Connecticut 2007 New York reading |
The Happy Time is a musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and a book by N. Richard Nash loosely based on a 1950 hit Broadway play, The Happy Time by Samuel A. Taylor, which was in turn based on stories by Robert Fontaine. The story had also been made into a 1952 film version.
The original 1967 Los Angeles and 1968 Broadway productions were directed and choreographed by Gower Champion, who won Tony Awards in each category.
Producer David Merrick had initially asked Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields to write the songs and Yves Montand to play the lead, but they were all busy with other projects and declined to participate. Merrick then asked N. Richard Nash to write the script, but Nash suggested an original story of his own. Merrick, holding the rights to The Happy Time, asked that the setting be changed to Canada, and the deal was set. The final script had little of the Taylor play but did use the characters and some minor details from Fontaine's stories. Nash showed the outline of the story to Kander and Ebb, who agreed to write the music.
Merrick had approached Gower Champion to direct the new musical. Champion agreed, with the provision that it open in Los Angeles at the Ahmanson Theatre. Rehearsals began in September 1967 in Los Angeles, and the show opened on November 19 at the Ahmanson. (The audience included Carol Channing and Julie Andrews.) Although the reviews were poor, the show was sold out. The show ran to December 23, 1967.
The Happy Time opened on Broadway at The Broadway Theatre on January 18, 1968. It received mixed reviews from the critics, who generally admired the performances but noted large deficiencies in the script. It closed on September 28, 1968, after a run of 286 sparsely attended performances and 23 previews. It was the first Broadway musical to lose a million dollars. The production was directed, filmed, and choreographed by Gower Champion, set design by Peter Wexler, costume design by Freddy Wittop, lighting design by Jean Rosenthal, film sequences created by Christopher Chapman, film technical direction by Barry O. Gordon, orchestrations by Don Walker, musical direction and vocal arrangements by Oscar Kosarin, associate choreography by Kevin Carlisle, and dance and incidental music arrangements by Marvin Laird. John Serry Sr. collaborated as the orchestral accordionist in the Broadway production.
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