A Wonderful Life (musical)
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| A Wonderful Life | |
| Music | Joe Raposo |
|---|---|
| Lyrics | Sheldon Harnick |
| Book | Sheldon Harnick |
| Based upon | Frank Capra's film It's a Wonderful Life |
| Productions | 1991 Washington DC 2005 Broadway concert |
A Wonderful Life is a musical with a book and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick and music by Joe Raposo.
Based on the classic Frank Capra film starring Jimmy Stewart, the story closely follows the original plot, set in 1945, telling the story of a suicidal man whose guardian angel reveals to him how different the world and everyone whose life he has touched would be had he never been born. The film was, in turn, based on a 1938 short story by Philip Van Doren Stern called The Greatest Gift.
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[edit] Background and production history
Harnick and Raposo worked for many years to put together a musical version of It's a Wonderful Life, but just as the musical's book was completed, a controversy arose over the rights to the underlying Stern story that delayed production of the show. During this delay, Raposo died of cancer in 1989.[1]
A Wonderful Life was performed for the first time at the University of Michigan in 1986, followed by a staged reading at Paper Mill Playhouse in 1990. It had a successful run at Washington, DC's Arena Stage in 1991.
On December 12, 2005, a staged concert version was staged by director Carl Andress and choreographed by Denis Jones at the Shubert Theatre in New York City for the benefit of the Actors' Fund of America. Amongst the Broadway notables who participated were Brian Stokes Mitchell (George), David Hyde Pierce (Clarence), Judy Kuhn (Mary), Dominic Chianese (Mr. Potter), Philip Bosco, George S. Irving, Marc Kudisch, Phylicia Rashad, Marian Seldes, and Karen Ziemba.
The Paper Mill Playhouse produced the work in 2006, directed by James Brennan, and earning cool reviews.[2] Theatre Under The Stars produced the work in 2007, and the piece has received other regional productions.[3]
[edit] Song list
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