Promenade (musical)

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Promenade
cover of the 1969 original off-Broadway cast album
Music	Al Carmines
Lyrics	María Irene Fornés
Book	María Irene Fornés
Productions	1965 New York City 1969 Off-Broadway 1983 Off-Broadway
Awards	OBIE Award for Distinguished Plays[1]

Promenade is an experimental musical with book and lyrics by María Irene Fornés and music by Rev. Al Carmines. The show itself, although a musical comedy, falls more into the category of Theatre of the Absurd. The most fitting description was given by Stephen Holden in a review in the New York Times for a 1983 New York revival: "This work, which suggests a mixture of Candide and Samuel Beckett viewed through Lewis Carroll's looking glass, is a little too avant-garde and absurdist to appeal to mainstream tastes. But in its odd way it's an exquisite piece of musical theater."

[edit] Original production

Promenade premiered on April 9, 1965 at the Judson Poets' Theatre, Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square, NYC, where it played for three weekends. It went on to a commercial run off-Broadway, at the Promenade Theatre (which was named for it), opening on June 4, 1969. It closed there on January 18, 1970 after 259 performances. This production starred (among others) George S. Irving, Gilbert Price, Alice Playten, Shannon Bolin, Florence Tarlow, and Madeline Kahn. This production was recorded and preserved as an RCA-Victor original cast album: it can be found on CD (RCA Victor 09026 63333 2).

[edit] References