Carnival in Flanders (musical)
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- For the film, see Carnival in Flanders (film)
| Carnival in Flanders | |
| Music | Jimmy Van Heusen |
|---|---|
| Lyrics | Johnny Burke |
| Book | Preston Sturges |
| Based upon | 1934 French comedy film La Kermesse Héroïque |
| Productions | 1953 Broadway |
Carnival in Flanders is a musical with a book by Preston Sturges, lyrics by Johnny Burke, and music by Jimmy Van Heusen.
Based on the 1934 French comedy film La Kermesse Héroïque, it is set in 1616 in the small Flemish village of Flackenburg, where a Spanish duke and his entourage descend upon the community. Hoping his ruse will force the visitors to depart, the mayor plays dead, but the duke sets his sights on the man's "widow" and begins to woo her.
Harold Arlen was approached to write the score, but the task ultimately fell to Van Heusen and Burke. Bing Crosby was providing much of the financing for the production and had great faith in the songwriting team, who had written several of his hits, despite the fact their previous theatrical collaboration, Nellie Bly (1946), had been a critical and commercial flop. George Oppenheimer, one of the book's original co-writers, withdrew from the project during pre-Broadway tryouts in Philadelphia, and Dorothy Fields joined her brother Herbert to help with rewrites. Eventually all their work was discarded by Sturges, who replaced Bretaigne Windust as director and completely reworked the book before the show reached California for a series of stagings by light opera companies prior to the New York City opening. Choreographer Jack Cole was replaced by Helen Tamiris, and several cast changes were made before the troubled production finally limped to Broadway.
It opened on September 8, 1953 at the New Century Theatre, where it ran for only six performances. The cast included John Raitt, Dolores Gray, and Roy Roberts. Critics were enchanted by Oliver Smith's sets and Lucinda Ballard's costumes, inspired by Breughel paintings, and Gray's lively performance, but universally panned every other aspect of the production. If remembered at all, it is primarily as the source of the Van Heusen-Burke standard "Here's That Rainy Day."
Gray won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. It remains the shortest-lived Tony-honored performance ever.
[edit] Song list
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[edit] References
Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops by Ken Mandelbaum, published by St. Martin's Press, October 1991, pages 169-71
[edit] External links
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