Juno (musical)

Juno is a Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Marc Blitzstein and book by Joseph Stein, based on the play Juno and the Paycock by Sean O'Casey. The original Broadway production opened at the Winter Garden Theater, New York, on March 9, 1959, and played 16 performances. The production starred Shirley Booth (as Juno Boyle), Melvyn Douglas (as Captain Boyle), Jack MacGowran (as Joxer), and Tommy Rall (as Johnny Boyle), with a cast that also included Loren Driscoll, Monte Amundsen, Nancy Andrews, Jean Stapleton, and Sada Thompson. The show was directed by Jose Ferrer and choreographed by Agnes DeMille.

Related Topics:
Broadway - Marc Blitzstein - Joseph Stein - Juno and the Paycock - Sean O'Casey - Winter Garden Theater - New York - March 9 - 1959 - Shirley Booth - Melvyn Douglas - Jack MacGowran - Tommy Rall - Loren Driscoll - Monte Amundsen - Nancy Andrews - Jean Stapleton - Sada Thompson - Jose Ferrer - Agnes DeMille

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Despite light moments the musical, like the play, is essentially a tragedy, chronicling the disintegration of an Irish family in Dublin in the early 1920s, during the Troubles between the Irish Republican Army and the British. Juno is the hardworking matriarch who struggles to hold the family together in the face of war, betrayal, and her worthless husband's drinking, and Booth was splendid in the role, but the show proved altogether too somber for Broadway audiences in 1959, and it closed quickly. Nevertheless, the magnificent Blitzstein score, almost operatic in its ambition and scope, lives on in the cast album. The score's highlights include "We're Alive," "Song of the Ma," "I Wish It So," "You Poor Thing," "What Is the Stars?", "We Can Be Proud," "My True Heart," "One Kind Word," "Bird on the Tree," "On A Day Like This," "Old Sayin's," "Music in the House," "It's Not Irish," "The LIffey Waltz," and "Where?", as well as the two DeMille ballets, "Dublin Night" and "Johnny."

Related Topics:
Dublin - The Troubles - Irish Republican Army

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Juno is one of many sad examples of a Broadway musical that failed commercially even though there was nothing wrong with it. Leonard Bernstein's Candide, another superior musical that flopped on Broadway its first time out, survived in its cast album until not only theater but opera companies began to revive it regularly. Perhaps a similar fate may yet await Juno.

Related Topics:
Leonard Bernstein - Candide - Opera

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