Come Summer is a Broadway musical with a book and lyrics by Will Holt

Will Holt

Will Holt is an American singer, songwriter, librettist and lyricist known first and primarily as a folk performer during the 1950s and 1960s and as an interpreter of the music of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht in performances and recordings with Martha Schlamme...

 and music by David Baker, based on Rainbow on the Road by Esther Forbes

Esther Forbes

Esther Louise Forbes was an American novelist, historian andchildren's writer who received the Pulitzer Prize and the Newbery Medal.-Life:...

 and vocal arrangements by Trude Rittman . The original Broadway production opened on March 18, 1969 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre

Lunt-Fontanne Theatre

The Lunt-Fontanne Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 205 West 46th Street in midtown-Manhattan.Designed by the architectural firm of Carrere and Hastings, it was built by producer Charles Dillingham and opened as the Globe Theatre, in honor of London's Shakespearean playhouse, on...

 starring Cathryn Damon

Cathryn Damon

Cathryn Lee Damon was an American actress, best known for her roles on television sitcoms in the 1970s and 1980s....

, Ray Bolger

Ray Bolger

Raymond Wallace "Ray" Bolger was an American entertainer of stage and screen, best known for his portrayal of the Scarecrow and Kansas farmworker Hank in The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:...

, David Cryer

David Cryer

David Cryer is a veteran American stage, television and film actor and singer and one of the founders of San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater which began in Pittsburgh and New York’s Mirror Repertory Theatre...

, and Leonard John Crofoot. Directed by Agnes De Mille

Agnes de Mille

Agnes George de Mille was an American dancer and choreographer.-Early years:Agnes de Mille was born in New York City into a well-connected family of theater professionals. Her father William C. deMille and her uncle Cecil B. DeMille were both Hollywood directors...

 it closed after 7 performances on March 22, 1969. Despite its short run, David Cryer won the 1969 Theatre World Award

Theatre World Award

The Theatre World Award, first awarded for the 1945-46 season, is an American honor presented annually to actors and actresses in recognition of an outstanding New York City stage debut performance, either on Broadway or off-Broadway.-History:...

.

Behind the scenes, the musical was a disaster. Ray Bolger demanded that the producers expand his role; several rewrites later, de Mille herself was fired and replaced by Burt Shevelove

Burt Shevelove

Burt Shevelove was an American musical theater playwright, lyricist, librettist, and director. Born in Newark, New Jersey, he graduated from Brown University and Yale . At Brown in 1935, he acted in the first ever Brownbrokers musical titled Something Bruin...

. Only a few days after that, Shevelove exited, and "the producers asked Agnes to come back, but only to choreograph." De Mille's assistant director, James Mitchell

James Mitchell (actor)

James Mitchell was an American actor and dancer. Although he is best known to television audiences as Palmer Cortlandt on the soap opera All My Children , theatre and dance historians remember him as one of Agnes de Mille's leading dancers...

, turned down the director's chair, but became the de facto director anyway. As a result, "neither she [de Mille] nor anyone else could say who directed the show." Come Summer turned out to be de Mille's final Broadway production.

Songs

Act I

• Good Time Charlie - Phineas and Peddlers
• Think Spring - Phineas, Jude and Populace
• Wild Birds Calling - Jude and Mitty
• Goodbye, My Bachelor - Phineas
• Fine, Thank You, Fine - Emma
• Road to Hampton - Jude
• Come Summer - hineas, Jude, Emma, Mitty and Visions of Lovers
• Let Me Be - Mitty and Jude
• Feather in My Shoe - Phineas
• The Loggers' Song - Phineas, Jude, Loggers and Populace

Act II

• Jude's Holler - Jude and Populace
• Faucett Falls Fancy - Phineas and Populace
• Rockin' - Emma and Jude
• Skin and Bones - Phineas
• Moonglade - Phineas, Jude, Mitty, Emma, Dorinda, Labe, Faucett and Populace
• Women - Mitty
• No - Phineas and Populace
• So Much World - Jude