Two by Two (musical)
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Two By Two is a Broadway musical with a book by Peter Stone, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and music by Richard Rodgers.
Based on Clifford Odets's play The Flowering Peach, it tells the story of Noah's preparations for the Great Flood and its aftermath.
Directed by Joe Layton, the production opened on November 10, 1970 at the Imperial Theatre, where it ran for ten months. The opening night cast included Danny Kaye, Marilyn Cooper, Joan Copeland, Harry Goz, Madeline Kahn, Tricia O'Neil, and Walter Willison.
Reviews were mixed and Kaye, unhappy with the script, began to improvise on a nightly basis. His ad-libbed shtick and comic asides to the audience were crowd-pleasers, and word-of-mouth helped business, but his lack of professionalism and Rodgers' public grousing about the liberties he took with the script allegedly killed his chances for a Tony Award nomination. When he hurt his hip, an undaunted Kaye continued with the show, appearing at each performance either on crutches or in a wheelchair.
Willison was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, and he and O'Neil received Theatre World Awards for their performances.
[edit] Song list
Act I
- Why Me?
- Put Him Away
- The Gitka's Song
- Something, Somewhere
- You Have Got to Have a Rudder on the Ark
- Something Doesn't Happen
- An Old Man
- Ninety Again!
- Two by Two
- I Do Not Know a Day I Did Not Love You
- Something, Somewhere (Reprise)
Act II
- When It Dries
- Two by Two (Reprise)
- You
- The Golden Ram
- Poppa Knows Best
- I Do Not Know a Day I Did Not Love You (Reprise)
- As Far as I'm Concerned
- Hey, Girlie
- The Covenant
[edit] Reference
The Best Musicals from Show Boat to A Chorus Line by Arthur Jackson, edited, designed, and produced by Webb & Bower Ltd., Exteter, England, published by Crown Publishers in the US in 1977
