MY DAY: From Elder Price to King Arthur

I started with BOOK OF MORMON at The Schuster Center and walked across the street to The Loft Theatre for The Human Race Theatre Company’s production of CAMELOT.

Camelot is a musical with music by Frederick Loewe and lyrics and a book by Alan Jay Lerner. It is based on the legend of King Arthur as adapted from the 1958 novel The Once and Future King by T. H. White.

The original 1960 production, directed by Moss Hart with orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett and Philip J. Lang, ran on Broadway for 873 performances, winning four Tony Awards. It starred Richard Burton as Arthur, Julie Andrews as Guenevere, and Robert Goulet as Lancelot. 

It spawned several notable productions including four Broadway revivals and a 1967 film adaptation. The 2023 Broadway revival features a revised book by Aaron Sorkin.

The musical has become associated with the Presidency of John F. Kennedy, which is sometimes called the “Camelot Era”, because of an interview with Jackie Kennedy in which she compared her husband’s presidency to King Arthur’s reign, specifically mentioning his fondness for the musical and particularly the closing lyrics of the eponymous final song.

The 1967 motion picture was directed by my stage directing mentor, Joshua Logan.

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About Wright Flyer Guy

Darin is a single adoptive father, a teacher, playwright, and musical theatre director from Kettering, Ohio.
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