A Connecticut Yankee (1927)

Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Lorenz Hart
Book by Herbert Fields

Directed by Greg MacKellan
Musical Director: Peggy Gorham
Choreographer: Isadora Stendo

Playbill Notes

Rodgers, Hart, and Fields' A Connecticut Yankee first opened in November, 1927 (a month before Show Boat) and was greeted with critical acclaim. The Broadway run was followed by an equally successful tour and London production and then the show faded into obscurity.

In 1943 Richard Rodgers flush with the success of his first show with Oscar Hammerstein (Oklahoma!, of course), decided to revive Yankee as a last attempt to rouse Larry Hart out of his latest and most destructive bout of alcoholism. The plan was to write a handful of new songs to supplement the original score and beef up the part of Morgan Le Fay for Larry's dear friend, the great musical comedy star Vivienne Segal.

All went well for a while, Larry Hart contributed six new lyrics (including three, "Can't You Do a Friend a Favor?," "To Keep My Love Alive," and "You Always Love the Same Girl," which rank among his best) and entered the rehearsal period with enthusiasm. By the out-of-town try-out, his old demons had returned, and on opening night he was in such bad shape that Rodgers had him removed from the theatre. The humiliation of this cruel treatment by his old song-writing partner sent him out on his final bender, and Hart died of pneumonia less than a week after the revival opened at the Martin Beck Theatre. The night he died, Miss Segal broke down while performing "To Keep My Love Alive" (Hart's last lyric) and had to stop the show for a few moments to compose herself.

The 1943 version survived for a while in summer stock, and was one of the opening shows in the inaugural season of the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut. The last major production was also at the Goodspeed in 1989; this time the producers combined the two versions, placing the '43 songs in the original '27 setting. This was our initial aim at 42nd Street Moon, but the necessary script and scores proved unavailable. We finally decided to the 1943 revival version in all its jivey, hep-cat glory, although the only script that could be located for this version was an early pre-rehearsal draft. In the process of revising this early draft for performance, we re-instated two songs (I Blush and You're What I Need) which had been dropped on the road during the original 1927 try-out. We like to think of this, then, as the best of all possible Connecticut Yankees, and we hope you'll agree.

-- Greg MacKellan

Plot Summary

The story opened with a prologue, in which Martin (the Yankee) is visiting his former fiancée, Alice Carter, on the eve of his marriage to Fay Morgan. Discovering them together, Fay knocks Martin out with a champagne bottle;while he is unconscious, Martin dreams he is back in Camelot in the days Of King Arthur. He falls in love with Demoiselle Alisande Le Carteloise (a.k.a. Sandy), "a damosel who's as dumbas'ell - but sweet." Dubbed "Sir Boss," he is in put in charge to industrializing the country. Working on a percentage basis, Sir Boss creates a one-man revolution by introducing telephones, advertising and radio to the astonished Knights of the Round Table. The King's evil sister, Morgana Le Fay, has Alisande kidnapped, but Sir Boss rescues her just before awakening. Back in the present day, he realizes it is Alice not Fay, whom he really loves.

Press Release

SAN FRANCISCO (9 May 1995) -- Martinis and the Middle Ages collide when a Manhattan playboy suddenly finds himself immersed in the medieval mischief of King Arthur's Court in A Connecticut Yankee, presented by 42nd Street Moon's Lost Musical Series June 9 - 25, 1995 at the New Conservatory Theatre, San Francisco. Originally mounted in 1927, A Connecticut Yankee was Rodgers and Hart's biggest hit of the 1920s. The musical launches 42nd Street Moon's six-show HAMMERSTEIN & HART FESTIVAL, celebrating the centennial of the birthdays of Oscar Hammerstein II and Lorenz Hart Jr.

Based on Mark Twain's novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, A Connecticut Yankee introduced beloved standards such as "My Heart Stood Still" and "Thou Swell." The show opened November 3, 1927 in Broadway's Vanderbilt Theatre, featuring a book by Herbert Fields and choreography by a then inexperienced young man named Busby Berkeley. Reviewers heaped praise upon the show, including Frank Vreeland of the New York Telegram who whimsically commanded, "Go, thou sluggard, and enjoy A Connecticut Yankee and tell ye cocke-eyed worlde thou hast had ye helluva time." 42nd Street Moon will present the score from a 1943 revival that added six songs to the original, including "To Keep My Love Alive" and "The Camelot Samba."

42nd Street Moon's presentation of A Connecticut Yankee will feature Joseph Lustig as dashing Manhattanite "Martin Barrett", who suddenly finds himself transported back to King Arthur's court. Stephanie Rhoads portrays "Alice", his true love in New York and a lady of the court in medieval times, while Lesley Hamilton takes the stage as "Faye Morgan", Martin's Manhattan fiancee doubling as "Morgan LeFay", the evil queen whose husbands have a way of dying inexplicably. Lustig was seen in 42nd Street Moon's Lost Musical Series production of Something For the Boys as well as in Cole and At the Cabaret Chat Noir. Rhoads, who was featured in the title roles of 42nd Street Moon productions of One Touch of Venus and Sweet Adeline, also performed in San Francisco's long-running Beach Blanket Babylon and toured in Some Like it Cole. Hamilton, seen previously in 42nd Street Moon productions of Something For the Boys and One Touch of Venus, also appeared in the cabaret hit Party of One and portrayed "Young Sally" in San Jose Civic Light Opera's critically acclaimed Follies.

The cast is rounded out by Juliette Morgan as "Evelyn Court", Bill Fahrner as "Sir Galahad", David Cummings as "Sir Kay" and Martin Beal as "King Arthur". Stacey Plaskett, Susan Johnson and Tom Cassell will also appear. MacKellan takes the helm to direct the production, with music direction provided by Peggy Gorham.