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The Civil War (musical)
Encyclopedia
- For the Robert Wilson opera, see the CIVIL warSThe CIVIL warSThe Civil Wars: A Tree Is Best Measured When It Is Down is an opera created in the early 1980s by director Robert Wilson to music by Philip Glass, David Byrne, Gavin Bryars and others...
.
The Civil War 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...
written by Gregory Boyd and Frank Wildhorn
Frank Wildhorn
Frank Wildhorn is an American composer known for both his musicals and popular songs. He is most known for his musical Jekyll & Hyde, which ran four years on Broadway, and for writing the #1 International Hit song "Where Do Broken Hearts Go?" for Whitney Houston.-Early years:Wildhorn was born in...
, with lyrics by Jack Murphy
Jack Murphy
Jack Roland Murphy or Murf the Surf is a surfing champion, musician, author, artist and convicted murderer who was involved in the biggest jewel heist in American history at the American Museum of Natural History...
and music by Wildhorn. The musical centers on the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, with the musical numbers portraying the war through Union
Union (American Civil War)
During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...
, Confederate
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
, and slave viewpoints. The musical was nominated for a 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...
for Best Musical. Its styles include Gospel, Folk, Country, Rock, and Rhythm and Blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
.
Production history
A studio cast album was released in 1999 by Atlantic Records, and included Linda EderLinda Eder
Linda Eder is an American singer and actress. She made her Broadway debut in the musical Jekyll & Hyde, for which she received 1997 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Nominations, as well as the Theatre World Award for Best Actress in a Musical...
, Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou is an American author and poet who has been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer" by scholar Joanne M. Braxton. She is best known for her series of six autobiographical volumes, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first and most highly...
, James Garner
James Garner
James Garner is an American film and television actor, one of the first Hollywood actors to excel in both media. He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades...
, Hootie & the Blowfish
Hootie & the Blowfish
Hootie & the Blowfish is an American rock band that enjoyed popularity in the second half of the 1990s. They were originally formed in 1986 at the University of South Carolina by Darius Rucker, Dean Felber, Jim Sonefeld, and Mark Bryan. The band has recorded five studio albums to date, and has...
, Travis Tritt
Travis Tritt
James Travis Tritt is an American country music singer from Marietta, Georgia. He signed to Warner Bros. Records in 1989, releasing seven studio albums and a greatest hits package for the label between then and 1999. In the 2000s, he released two albums on Columbia Records and one for the defunct...
, Dr. John
Dr. John
Malcolm John "Mac" Rebennack, Jr. , better known by the stage name Dr. John , is an American singer-songwriter, pianist and guitarist, whose music combines blues, pop, jazz as well as Zydeco, boogie woogie and rock and roll.Active as a session musician since the late 1950s, he came to wider...
, and Betty Buckley
Betty Buckley
Betty Lynn Buckley is an American theater, film and television actress and singer. She is a Tony Award winner and Grammy Award nominee.-Early life:...
. The musical had its world premiere at the Alley Theatre
Alley Theatre
The Alley Theatre is a Tony Award-winning indoor theatre in Downtown Houston, Texas, and hosts two stages. The "Hubbard" is the main stage with seating for 824; the more intimate "Neuhaus" seats 310. Nine towers and open-air terraces give the Alley Theatre a castle-like quality. Inside, a staircase...
, Houston, Texas, on September 16, 1998, where co-author Boyd is the Artistic Director. The production was supervised by Gregory Boyd, with musical staging by George Faison
George Faison
George Faison is an African-American dancer and choreographer.-Biography:Faison was born in Washington, D.C. where he studied dance with the Jones-Haywood Capitol Ballet and Carolyn Tate of Howard University while attending Dunbar High School, and appeared with The American Light Opera Company in...
and staging by Nick Corley. The cast featured Linda Eder (Hanna Hopes), Beth Leavel
Beth Leavel
-Biography:Leavel was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. She attended Meredith College, earning a degree in social work. She completed a graduate theatre degree at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1980. She acted during college, appearing in productions such as Cabaret and Hello,...
(Mrs. Lydia Bixby/Violet), Jesse Lenat (Autolycus Fell), Capathia Jenkins (Hope Jackson), Matt Bogart (Pvt. Nathaniel Taylor) and Michael Lanning (Capt. Emmet Lochran).
The musical premiered on 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...
at the St. James Theatre
St. James Theatre
The St. James Theatre is located at 246 W. 44th St. Broadway, New York City, New York. It was built by Abraham L. Erlanger, theatrical producer and a founding member of the Theatrical Syndicate, on the site of the original Sardi's restaurant. It opened in 1927 as The Erlanger...
on April 22, 1999 and closed on June 13, 1999, running for 61 performances and 35 previews. Directed by Jerry Zaks
Jerry Zaks
Jerry Zaks is a German-born American stage and television director, and actor. He won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play and Drama Desk Award for directing The House of Blue Leaves, Lend Me A Tenor, and Six Degrees of Separation and the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical and Drama...
with musical staging by Luis Perez, the cast featured Leavel as Mabel/Mrs. Bixby, Bogart as Private Sam Taylor, and Leo Burmester
Leo Burmester
Leo Burmester was an American actor. Burmester worked for director John Sayles several times, including in Passion Fish and Lone Star , and also for directors such as John Schlesinger and Sidney Lumet, and as the Apostle Nathaniel in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ...
as Autolycus Fell.
The musical toured in the United States, starting in January 2000 in Cincinnati, Ohio. The original cast of 28 had been reduced to 15. "Rather than playing individual characters, they all play everyman - a soldier, a wife, a nurse, a girlfriend, a slave." Stephen Rayne directed, with a cast that included Larry Gatlin
Larry Gatlin
Larry Wayne Gatlin is an American country music singer/songwriter. He is perhaps best known for teaming up with his brothers Steve and Rudy in the late 1970s, becoming one of country music's most successful acts of the 1970s and 1980s. Gatlin has had a total of 33 Top 40 singles...
alternating with John Schneider
John Schneider (television actor)
John Richard Schneider III is an American actor and singer. He is best known for his portrayal of Bo Duke in the 1980s American television series The Dukes of Hazzard, and as Jonathan Kent on Smallville, a 2001 television adaptation of Superman.Alongside his acting career, Schneider performed as a...
, and BeBe Winans
BeBe Winans
Benjamin "BeBe" Winans is a gospel and R&B singer. He is a member of the noted Winans family, most members of which are also gospel artists.-The PTL Club:...
.
The Civil War was one of the productions produced at the newly-renovated Ford's Theatre
Ford's Theatre
Ford's Theatre is a historic theater in Washington, D.C., used for various stage performances beginning in the 1860s. It is also the site of the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865...
(Washington, DC), running from March 27, 2009 through May 24. Directed by Jeff Calhoun
Jeff Calhoun (choreographer)
Jeff Calhoun is an American director, choreographer, producer and dancer.As a student at Richland High School, now Pine-Richland High School , Calhoun was interested in both athletics and performance, playing football and studying tap dance. He danced in the ensemble at The Kenley Players in Ohio...
, the 16-member cast featured Jarrod Emick, Eleasha Gamble, Michael Lanning, and Timothy Shew, with the recorded voice of Hal Holbrook
Hal Holbrook
Harold Rowe "Hal" Holbrook, Jr. is an American actor. His television roles include Abraham Lincoln in the 1976 TV series Lincoln, Hays Stowe on The Bold Ones: The Senator and Capt. Lloyd Bucher on Pueblo. He is also known for his role in the 2007 film Into the Wild, for which he was nominated for...
as Lincoln. The production is conceived in a concert setting.
In 2006, a new version of the musical opened at the Majestic Theatre in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Gettysburg is a borough that is the county seat, part of the Gettysburg Battlefield, and the eponym for the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg. The town hosts visitors to the Gettysburg National Military Park and has 3 institutions of higher learning: Lutheran Theological Seminary, Gettysburg College, and...
. Called For the Glory: The Civil War Musical in Gettysburg, it featured two new songs and a new structure.
Songs
(Note: as presented on Broadway, 1999)Act 1
- A House Divided – The Citizens
- Freedom's Child – Frederick Douglass and Abolitionists
- By The Sword / Sons of Dixie – The Armies
- Tell My Father Private – Sam Taylor
- The Peculiar Institution – The Enslaved
- If Prayin' Were Horses – Clayton Toler and Bessie Toler
- Greenback – Autolycus Fell, Mabel and Violet
- Missing You (My Bill) – Sarah McEwen
- Judgment Day – Captain Billy Pierce, Captain Emmett Lochran, Private Sam Taylor and The Armies
- Father, How Long? – Clayton Toler
- Someday – Harriet Jackson, Bessie Toler and Others
- I'll Never Pass This Way Again – Corporal Henry Stewart
- How Many Devils? – The Armies
Act 2
- Virginia – Captain Billy Pierce
- Candle in the Window – Harriet Jackson
- Oh! Be Joyful! – Autolycus Fell, Sergeant Byron Richardson, Private Conrad Bock and Private Elmore Hotchkiss
- The Hospital – Mrs. Bixby, Nurse, Union Soldiers and Clayton Toler
- If Prayin' Were Horses (Reprise) – Clayton Toler and Bessie Toler
- River Jordan – Benjamin Reynolds and Others
- Sarah – Corporal William McEwen
- The Honor of Your Name – Sarah McEwen
- Greenback (Reprise) – Autolycus Fell and Violet
- Northbound Train – Captain Emmett Lochran
- Last Waltz for Dixie – Captain Billy Pierce and Confederate Soldiers
- The Glory – Captain Emmett Lochran, Frederick Douglass, Benjamin Reynolds and Full Company
Response
The Variety review of the Alley Theatre production noted that the show was not "a traditional musical as a revue-style presentation of a song cycle. Wildhorn and co-creators Jack Murphy and Gregory Boyd impose precious little narrative structure on "The Civil War," preferring instead to integrate individual, self-contained vignettes as elements in a thematically consistent but essentially bookless concert." The production uses "Rear-screen projections of photos, paintings and letters evoke the period setting".It was panned by critics including The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, who found it "generic...without plot and essentially without character".
Awards
Tony AwardTony 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...
- Tony Award for Best MusicalTony Award for Best MusicalThis is a list of winners and nominations for the Tony Award for Best Musical, first awarded in 1949. This award is presented to the producers of the musical.-1940s:* 1949: Kiss Me, Kate – Music and lyrics by Cole Porter, book by Samuel and Bella Spewack...
(Nominated) - Tony Award for Best Original ScoreTony Award for Best Original ScoreThe Tony Award for Best Original Score is the Tony Award given to the composers and lyricists of the best original score written for a musical in that year. The score consists of music and lyrics...
(Nominated)
Outer Critics Circle Award
Outer Critics Circle Award
The Outer Critics Circle Awards are presented annually for theatrical achievements both on and Off-Broadway and were begun during the 1949-1950 theater season. The awards are decided upon by theater critics who review for out-of-town newspapers, national publications, and other media outlets...
- Outstanding New Musical (Nominated)
- Outstanding Director of a Musical - Jerry ZaksJerry ZaksJerry Zaks is a German-born American stage and television director, and actor. He won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play and Drama Desk Award for directing The House of Blue Leaves, Lend Me A Tenor, and Six Degrees of Separation and the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical and Drama...
(Nominated) - Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical - Michael BellMichael BellMichael Patrick Bell is an American actor and voice actor. He is most commonly credited in video games, animated movies, and television series.-1970s and 1980s voice work:Bell is a mainstay of 1970s and 1980s animation...
(WIN) - Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical - Cheryl Friedman (Nominated)
- Outstanding Lighting Design - Paul Gallo (WIN)
2010 Helen Hayes Theatre Awards
- Outstanding Resident Musical (Nominated)
- Outstanding Director of a Musical - Jeff Calhoun (Nominated)
- Outstanding Ensemble of a Musical (Nominated)
- Outstanding Musical Direction (Nominated)
- Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Musical - Eleasha Gamble (Nominated)
- Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Musical - Kellee Knighten (Nominated)