Miss Liberty
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| Miss Liberty | |
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| Sheet music cover | |
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| Music | Irving Berlin |
| Lyrics | Irving Berlin |
| Book | Robert E. Sherwood |
| Based upon | The Statue of Liberty |
| Productions | 1949 Broadway |
Miss Liberty is a Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, book by Robert E. Sherwood, directed by Moss Hart, (and produced by the three of them). It opened July 15, 1949 at the Imperial Theatre and ran for 308 performances.
The cast included Eddie Albert, Allyn McLerie, and Mary McCarty.
The musical story of "Miss Liberty" owes its spirit entirely to the world famed Statue of Liberty, which has stood since 1886 on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor, holding up a torch of welcome to immigrants to a new land.
The first glimmer of this story as the basic plot for a musical stage offering came to author Robert E. Sherwood during wartime. He was making a crossing of the Atlantic and was deeply moved by the reactions to the Statue by thousands of GI's who crowded the decks for a last look at the symbol of America. One day, Mr. Sherwood determined, he would write a story about that symbol and what it means to native and new Americans: thus, "Miss Liberty".
The show had a number of memorable songs, but one was worth the price of admission: Irving Berlin's georgous setting of the poem "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus, which is inscribed on the base of the statue, "Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor."
