Greenwillow is a musical

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 with a book by Lesser Samuels

Lesser Samuels

Lesser Samuels enjoyed a 20 year career as a Hollywood screenwriter.He is best known for back-to-back Oscar nominations for the racial drama No Way Out in 1950 and Billy Wilder's lacerating critique of tabloid journalism Ace in the Hole the following year.Samuels also wrote and served as associate...

 and Frank Loesser

Frank Loesser

Frank Henry Loesser was an American songwriter who wrote the lyrics and scores to the Broadway hits Guys and Dolls and How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, among others. He won separate Tony Awards for the music and lyrics in both shows, as well as sharing the Pulitzer Prize for...

 and music and lyrics by Loesser.

Based on the novel by B. J. Chute, the fantasy is set in the magical town of Greenwillow, where the eldest in each generation of Briggs men must obey the "call to wander," while the women they leave behind care for the home and rear their children in the hope that someday their husbands will return. Gideon loves his girlfriend, Dorrie, and would like nothing better than to settle down with her, and finds in the town's newest inhabitant, the Reverend Birdsong, an ally who will try to help him make his dream come true.

Following a pre-Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 run at Philadelphia's Shubert Theatre, the production, directed by George Roy Hill

George Roy Hill

George Roy Hill was an American film director. He is most noted for directing such films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting, which both starred the acting duo Paul Newman and Robert Redford...

 and choreographed by Joe Layton

Joe Layton

Joe Layton was an American director and choreographer known primarily for his work on Broadway.-Biography:Born Joseph Lichtman in Brooklyn, New York, Layton began his career as a dancer in Wonderful Town , and he appeared uncredited in the ensemble of the original live TV production of Rodgers and...

, opened on March 8, 1960 at the Alvin Theatre where, hampered by lukewarm reviews, it ran for only 97 performances. The cast included Anthony Perkins

Anthony Perkins

Anthony Perkins was an American actor, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in Friendly Persuasion and as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho , and its three sequels.-Early life:...

, Cecil Kellaway

Cecil Kellaway

Cecil Lauriston Kellaway was a South African-born character actor.Cecil Kellaway spent many years as an actor, author, and director in the Australian film industry until he tried his luck in Hollywood in the 1930s. Finding he could get only gangster bit parts, he got discouraged and returned to...

, Pert Kelton

Pert Kelton

Pert Kelton was an American vaudeville, movie, radio and television actress. She was the first actress who played Alice Kramden in The Honeymooners with Jackie Gleason and was a prominent comedic supporting film actress in the 1930s...

, Ellen McCown, William Chapman

William Chapman (baritone)

William Chapman is an American operatic baritone and stage actor. He appeared in several Broadway productions and was notably a leading performer at the New York City Opera from 1957 through 1979.-Early career:...

, and Marian Mercer

Marian Mercer

Marian Ethel Mercer was an American actress and singer.Born in Akron, Ohio, she graduated from the University of Michigan, then spent several seasons working in summer stock. She made her Broadway debut in the chorus of the short-lived musical, Greenwillow in 1960...

.

Song list

Act I

• A Day Borrowed from Heaven
• The Music of Home
• Gideon Briggs, I Love You
• The Autumn Courting
• The Call to Wander
• Summertime Love
• Walking Away Whistling
• The Sermon
• Could've Been a Ring
• Gideon Briggs, I Love You (Reprise)
• Halloweve
• Never Will I Marry
• Greenwillow Christmas

Act II

• The Music of Home (Reprise)
• Faraway Boy
• Clang Dang the Bell
• What a Blessing
• He Died Good
• The Spring Courting
• Summertime Love (Reprise)
• What a Blessing (Reprise)
• The Call
• The Music of Home (Reprise)

Tony Award

Tony Award

The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...

 nominations

• Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Pert Kelton
  Pert Kelton
  Pert Kelton was an American vaudeville, movie, radio and television actress. She was the first actress who played Alice Kramden in The Honeymooners with Jackie Gleason and was a prominent comedic supporting film actress in the 1930s...
  
  )
• Best Scenic Design (Musical)
• Best Costume Design
• Best Choreography
• Best Conductor and Musical Director
• Best Stage Technician

Trivia

This play was being rehearsed in New York while Anthony Perkins

Anthony Perkins

Anthony Perkins was an American actor, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in Friendly Persuasion and as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho , and its three sequels.-Early life:...

 was simultaneously filming the Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...

 classic shocker Psycho

Psycho (1960 film)

Psycho is a 1960 American suspense/psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch...

 (1960) in Los Angeles. Over the years in interviews about the infamous shower scene in that film, Anthony Perkins

Anthony Perkins

Anthony Perkins was an American actor, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in Friendly Persuasion and as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho , and its three sequels.-Early life:...

 has always said that during the whole week of filming required for that scene, his stand-in was used, because he was in New York rehearsing for a Broadway play. Greenwillow was that play.

Barbra Streisand recorded "Never Will I Marry" for The Third Album in 1964, and sang it live in her early club act.

External links

• Time Magazine review