Her First Roman is a musical with music, lyrics, and book by Ervin Drake

Ervin Drake

Ervin Drake, born Ervin Maurice Druckman is an American songwriter whose works include such American Songbook standards as "It Was a Very Good Year". He has written in a variety of styles and his work has been recorded by musicians from all over the world in a multitude of styles...

, based on the 1898 George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...

 play Caesar and Cleopatra

Caesar and Cleopatra (play)

Caesar and Cleopatra, a play written in 1898 by George Bernard Shaw, was first staged in 1901 and first published with Captain Brassbound's Conversion and The Devil's Disciple in his 1901 collection, Three Plays for Puritans. It was first performed at Newcastle-on-Tyne on March 15, 1899...

.

Original production

During it's out of town tryout, the original director Michael Benthall

Michael Benthall

Michael Pickersgill Benthall was an English theatre director.As an undergraduate at Oxford University, Michael Benthall met Robert Helpmann, who had been fulfilling an invitation to dance at there...

 was fired and succeeded by Derek Goldby

Derek Goldby

Derek Goldby is an Australian-born theatre director who has worked internationally, particularly in Canada, Belgium, the United Kingdom, the United States and France.- Early life :...

, and the original choreographer was fired and replaced. Jerry Bock

Jerry Bock

Jerrold Lewis "Jerry" Bock was an American musical theater composer. He received the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama with Sheldon Harnick for their 1959 musical Fiorello! and the Tony Award for Best Composer and Lyricist for the 1964 musical Fiddler on the Roof with...

 and Sheldon Harnick

Sheldon Harnick

Sheldon Harnick is an American lyricist best known for his collaborations with composer Jerry Bock on hit musicals such as Fiddler on the Roof....

 were brought in to write new songs and wrote Ptolemy, Old Gentleman, and Caesar is Wrong. Goldby cut a lot of Drake's score and replaced whole sections of his libretto with lines from Shaw's play. The show opened 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...

 on October 20, 1968 and closed after 17 performances.

The rest of the crew had set design and costume by Michael Annals

Michael Annals

Michael Annals is a theatrical scenic and costume designer.-Biography:Michael Annals was born in what was then Harrow, Middlesex on April 21, 1938. His parents were Henry Ernest Annals and Constance Anne Annals...

, lighting design Martin Aronstein

Martin Aronstein

Martin Aronstein was an American lighting designer whose Broadway career spanned thirty-six years.Born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Aronstein attended Queens College in Flushing, New York. In 1957, following a performance sponsored by the New York Shakespeare Festival, he approached a backstage...

, musical director and dance and incidental music Peter Howard

Peter Howard (Broadway conductor and arranger)

Peter Howard was an American musical theater arranger, conductor and pianist...

, music orchestrated and vocal arrangements Don Walker

Don Walker (orchestrator)

Don Walker was a prolific Broadway orchestrator, who also composed music for musicals and one film and worked as a conductor in television.-Biography:...

, production manager Tom Porter, stage managers George Rondo and Ellen Wittman, and press by Max Eisen and Carl Samrock.

The opening night cast was Richard Kiley (Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

), Leslie Uggams

Leslie Uggams

Leslie Uggams is an American actress and singer, perhaps best known for her work in Hallelujah, Baby! She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.-Singing:...

 (Cleopatra), Cal Bellini

Cal Bellini

Cal Bellini is a former actor, a Malay originally from Singapore, who was cast in roles of mostly foreigners, American Indians, or ethnic minorities, primarily on American television between 1960 and 1986....

 (Apollodorus

Apollodorus the Sicilian

Apollodorus was a loyal follower of the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra VII. In 48 BC he is supposed to have enabled Cleopatra to get in the palace of Alexandria to Julius Caesar and in this way to strengthen decisively her position in the power struggle with her brother Ptolemy XIII.When Caesar came to...

), Jack Dabdoub (Roman Centurion), Larry Douglas (Achillas

Achillas

Achillas was one of the guardians of the Egyptian king Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator, and commander of the king's troops, when Pompey fled to Egypt in 48 BC...

), Philip Graves (Ptolemy

Ptolemy Philadelphus (Cleopatra)

Ptolemy Philadelphus was a Ptolemaic prince and was the youngest and fourth child of Greek Ptolemaic Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt, and her third with Roman Triumvir Mark Antony. Ptolemy was of Greek and Roman heritage. He was born in Antioch, Syria...

), Bruce MacKay (Rufio), Claudia McNeil

Claudia McNeil

Claudia McNeil was an American actress known for premiering the role of matriarch Lena Younger in both the stage and screen productions of A Raisin in the Sun. She later appeared in a 1981 production of the musical version of the play, Raisin presented by Equity Library Theater...

 (Ftatateeta), Earl Montgomery (Pothinus), and Brooks Morton (Britannus), The ensemble included Suzanne Rogers

Suzanne Rogers

Suzanne Rogers is an Emmy Award winning longtime American actress with credits in both Television and Film. Miss Rogers's stage name was inspired by Ginger Rogers, who she cites as a personal inspiration for joining the entertainment industry...

, Trina Parks

Trina Parks

Trina Parks is an American actor, vocalist, choreographer, principal dancer and dance instructor.She is most famous for portraying Thumper in 1971's Diamonds Are Forever.-Movies:* Diamonds Are Forever...

, Kenneth Kamal Scott

Kenneth Kamal Scott

Kenneth Kamal Scott is a singer, dancer and actor whose sixty-five year career has included numerous achievements in a diverse array of genres and settings, including Broadway, jazz, pop, opera, ballet and modern dance....

, and Priscilla Lopez

Priscilla Lopez

Priscilla Lopez is an American singer, dancer, and actress.-Early life:Lopez was born in the Bronx, New York to Francisco Lopez, a hotel banquet foreman and Laura , who were moved to New York from their native Puerto Rico...

.