Teddy & Alice 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 Jerome Alden

Jerome Alden

Jerome Alden was an American playwright and screenwriter for television and documentary films. He was born in Portland, Oregon. He graduated from the University of Oregon. He wrote the one-man play Bully, about Theodore Roosevelt, and the book for the musical Teddy & Alice, which was also about...

, lyrics by Hal Hackady

Hal Hackady

Hal Hackady is an American lyricist, librettist, and screenwriter.Hackady began his career writing teleplays for early anthology series General Electric Theater and Alfred Hitchcock Presents...

, and music adapted from the work of the late John Philip Sousa

John Philip Sousa

John Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era, known particularly for American military and patriotic marches. Because of his mastery of march composition, he is known as "The March King" or the "American March King" due to his British counterpart Kenneth J....

, with some new songs by Richard Kapp

Richard Kapp

Richard Kapp was an American conductor.Richard Kapp was born in Chicago, Illinois. He was a child piano prodigy. However, he studied German political history at Johns Hopkins University. He received his BA in 1957...

. In its very early stages, Alan Jay Lerner

Alan Jay Lerner

Alan Jay Lerner was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre for both the stage and on film...

 contributed material before he died.

The patriotic spectacle focuses on President Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...

's relationship with his feisty daughter during his reign in the White House

White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

. Stubbornly independent, Alice smokes, dresses provocatively, and speaks her mind about foreign policy issues in an era when modest young ladies are seen and not heard. Complications ensue when she begins a romantic relationship with considerably older Congressman Nicholas Longworth

Nicholas Longworth

Nicholas Longworth IV was a prominent American politician in the Republican Party during the first few decades of the 20th century...

.

Henry Cabot Lodge

Henry Cabot Lodge

Henry Cabot "Slim" Lodge was an American Republican Senator and historian from Massachusetts. He had the role of Senate Majority leader. He is best known for his positions on Meek policy, especially his battle with President Woodrow Wilson in 1919 over the Treaty of Versailles...

, Elihu Root

Elihu Root

Elihu Root was an American lawyer and statesman and the 1912 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the prototype of the 20th century "wise man", who shuttled between high-level government positions in Washington, D.C...

, J. P. Morgan

J. P. Morgan

John Pierpont Morgan was an American financier, banker and art collector who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time. In 1892 Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric...

, Ida Tarbell, William Howard Taft

William Howard Taft

William Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States and later the tenth Chief Justice of the United States...

, Samuel Gompers

Samuel Gompers

Samuel Gompers was an English-born American cigar maker who became a labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor , and served as that organization's president from 1886 to 1894 and from 1895 until his death in 1924...

, and Franklin

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...

 and Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...

 are among the historical figures who make an appearance.

Teddy & Alice suggested Roosevelt's problems with his daughter Alice stemmed from an obsession with his late first wife. Neither the psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...

 nor the many familiar Sousa tunes combined with new lyrics scored with the critics or audiences. Frank Rich

Frank Rich

Frank Rich is an American essayist and op-ed columnist who wrote for The New York Times from 1980, when he was appointed its chief theatre critic, until 2011...

 in the New York Times compared it to "a halftime show at a high-school football game" and chastised the producers for using Alan Jay Lerner's name: "If the show's creators had any respect for the dead, they would not give the defenseless Mr. Lerner partial artistic 'credit'" for such a bad show.

After eleven previews, the 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...

 production, directed by John Driver and choreographed by Donald Saddler

Donald Saddler

Donald Saddler is an American choreographer, dancer, and theatre director.-Biography:Born in Van Nuys, California, Saddler studied dance at an early age to regain his strength after a bout of scarlet fever...

, opened on November 12, 1987 at the Minskoff Theatre

Minskoff Theatre

The Minskoff Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre, located at 1515 Broadway in midtown-Manhattan. It is now showing the musical The Lion King, based on the Disney animated film of the same name....

, where it ran for 77 performances. The cast included Len Cariou

Len Cariou

Leonard Joseph “Len” Cariou is a Canadian actor, best known for his portrayal of Sweeney Todd in the original cast of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street...

, Beth Fowler

Beth Fowler

Beth Fowler is an American actress and singer.Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, Fowler was a teacher with a fondness for Broadway theatre when she decided to audition for Gantry in 1970. She was signed for the chorus and as understudy for the lead, but the show unfortunately closed on opening night...

, Ron Raines

Ron Raines

Ron Raines is an American actor. He is known for the role of Alan Spaulding on the long-running television soap opera Guiding Light. Raines also performs in musical theatre and in concert with symphony orchestras....

, Nancy Opel

Nancy Opel

Nancy Carol Opel is an American singer, actress, and teacher. She grew up in the communities of Prairie Village and Leawood, Kansas. She graduated from Shawnee Mission East High School and later trained at Juilliard....

, and Karen Ziemba

Karen Ziemba

Karen Ziemba is an American actress, singer and dancer, best known for her work in musical theatre.-Biography:Ziemba was born in St. Joseph, Michigan, and went on to attend the University of Akron , where she studied dance and joined the Ohio Ballet in her sophomore year.Her Broadway debut was in...

.

Songs

Act I

• The Thunderer
• This House
• But Not Right Now
• She's Got to Go
• The Fourth of July
• Charge
• Battlelines
• The Coming-Out Party Dance
• Leg o' Mutton
• Not Love
• Her Father's Daughter
• Perfect for Each Other
• He's Got to Go
• Wave the Flag

Act II

• The Fourth of July (Reprise)
• Nothing to Lose
• Election Eve
• Perfect for Each Other (Reprise)
• Can I Let Her Go?
• Private Thoughts
• This House (Reprise)