Ambassador (musical)

Infobox Musical
name= Ambassador


caption= From cast album cover
music= Dan Gohman
lyrics= Hal Hackady
book= Don Ettlinger
Anna Marie Barlow
basis= Henry James novel "The Ambassadors"
productions= 1971 West End
1972 Broadway
awards=

"Ambassador" is a musical with a book by Don Ettlinger and Anna Marie Barlow, lyrics by Hal Hackady, and music by Dan Gohman. It is based on the 1903 Henry James novel "The Ambassadors".

The show was first produced at Her Majesty's Theatre in London on October 19 1971, and ran for 86 performances. [ [http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsE/ettlinger-don.html Don Ettlinger - complete guide to the Playwright and Plays ] ] The production was directed by Stone Widney, choreographed by Gillian Lynne, and starred Howard Keel as Lewis Lambert Strether, Danielle Darrieux as Marie de Vionnet, Margaret Courtenay as Amelia Newsome, Judith Paris as Sarah, and Blain Fairman as Bilham.

Despite the show's poor reception in London, the producers decided to bring it to Broadway. [ [http://www.geocities.com/howardkeelhomepage/hkbio3.htm Page 3 ] ] The show went through several re-writes which included cutting the first scene. The Broadway production, directed by Widney, conducted by Herbert Grossman and choreographed, because of Miss Lynne's unavailability, by Joyce Trisler, opened on November 19 1972 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, where it ran for 29 performances. [ [http://www.musicals101.com/1970s.htm 1970s Stage Chronology ] ] The cast included Keel as Lewis, Darrieux as Marie, Michael J. Shannon as Chad, Andrea Marcovicci as Jeanne de Vionnet, M'el Dowd as Amelia Newsome, and Nicholas Dante as the bellboy.

ynopsis

Lewis Lambert Strether experiences a clash of cultures when he journeys to 1906 Paris to find his fiancée's wayward son and bring him back to America to take his rightful place as heir to the family fortune. The strait-laced Strether's mission falls by the wayside when he finds the openness of the European lifestyle far more attractive than his stifling existence and comes to the realization the only rescue the young man requires is from the values of his manipulative mother.

ong list

;Act I
*Lambert's Quandary
*Lilas
*I Know the Man
*The Right Time, the Right Place
*She Passed My Way
*Something More
*Love Finds the Lonely
*Surprise
*Happy Man

;Act II
*Lilas, What Happened to Paris
*Young with Him
*Too Much to Forgive
*Why Do Women Have to Call It Love
*Mama
*That's What I Need Tonight
*Gossip
*Not Tomorrow
*All of My Life
*Thank You, No

References

External links

* [http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=3153 Internet Broadway Database listing]
* [http://www.flyrope.com/sections/shows/index.php?var=100000626 Production information from Flyrope.com]
* [http://cgi.ebay.com/AMBASSADOR-DON-GOHMAN-1971-BRITISH-ORIGINAL-CAST-LP_W0QQitemZ110169425983QQcmdZViewItem Information about the cast recording and London cast]