Fanny (musical)

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Original cast recording

Fanny is a musical with a book by S. N. Behrman and Joshua Logan and music and lyrics by Harold Rome.

A tale of love, secrets, and passion based on Marcel Pagnol's trilogy of plays entitled Marius, Fanny and Cesar, it is set in and around the old port of Marseilles. The plot focuses on a young woman whose childhood love, Marius, leaves her for the sea. After his departure, she discovers she is pregnant and, under pressure from her mother, she marries Panisse, an older man whose delight at having an heir prompts him to keep the boy's illegitimacy a secret. Complications arise when the sailor returns from abroad and neither Fanny nor her son Cesario can hide their attraction to him.

The Broadway production, directed by Logan and choreographed by Helen Tamiris, opened on November 4, 1954 at the Majestic Theatre, where it ran for more than two years before transferring to the Belasco, for a total run of 888 performances. The original cast included Florence Henderson, Ezio Pinza, and Walter Slezak, who won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.