A Time for Singing
Encyclopedia
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...
with music by John Morris, lyrics by Gerald Freedman
Gerald Freedman
Gerald Freedman is an American theatre director, librettist, and lyricist, and a college dean.Born in Lorain, Ohio, Freedman was educated at Northwestern University, where he received both BA and MA degrees. He began his career as assistant director of such projects as Bells Are Ringing, West Side...
and John Morris, and a book by Gerald Freedman
Gerald Freedman
Gerald Freedman is an American theatre director, librettist, and lyricist, and a college dean.Born in Lorain, Ohio, Freedman was educated at Northwestern University, where he received both BA and MA degrees. He began his career as assistant director of such projects as Bells Are Ringing, West Side...
and John Morris. The work was based on Richard Llewellyn
Richard Llewellyn
Richard Dafydd Vivian Llewellyn Lloyd , better known by his pen name Richard Llewellyn, was a Welsh novelist.Llewellyn Richard Dafydd Vivian Llewellyn Lloyd (8 December 1906 – 30 November 1983), better known by his pen name Richard Llewellyn, was a Welsh novelist.Llewellyn Richard Dafydd...
's novel of a Welsh mining village, How Green Was My Valley
How Green Was My Valley
How Green Was My Valley is a 1939 novel by Richard Llewellyn, telling the story through narration of the main character, of his Welsh family and the mining community in which they live. The author had claimed to have based the book on his own knowledge of the Gilfach Goch area, but this was proven...
. The show starred Ivor Emmanuel
Ivor Emmanuel
Ivor Lewis Emmanuel was a Welsh musical theatre and television singer and actor. He led the rendition of "Men of Harlech" in the 1964 film Zulu.-Life and career:...
(as David Griffith), Tessie O'Shea
Tessie O'Shea
Teresa Mary "Tessie" O'Shea was a Welsh entertainer and actress.Born in Cardiff to Nellie Theresa and James Peter O'Shea, a soldier who was the son of Irish emigrants, Tessie was reared in the British music hall tradition, appearing on stage as "The Wonder of Wales" as early as the age of six...
, Shani Wallis
Shani Wallis
Shani Wallis is an English actress and singer.Wallis was born in Tottenham, London. Making her first stage appearance at the age of four, she later studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art on a scholarship...
and Laurence Naismith
Laurence Naismith
Laurence Naismith was an English actor.Naismith appeared in films such as Carrington VC , Richard III , Sink the Bismarck! , Jason and the Argonauts , and Diamonds Are Forever . He also starred in a children's ghost film The Amazing Mr Blunden...
.
The original 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...
production began a series of ten previews at The Broadway Theatre
The Broadway Theatre
The Broadway Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 1681 Broadway in midtown-Manhattan....
on May 12, 1966, and opened officially on May 21, 1966, running for a total of only 41 performances. It closed on June 25, 1966.
An Alexander H. Cohen
Alexander H. Cohen
Alexander H. Cohen was a prolific American theatrical producer who mounted more than one hundred productions on both sides of the Atlantic. He was the only American producer to maintain offices in the West End as well as on Broadway.-Personal life:Cohen was born in New York City...
production, it has been called "probably the best musical he ever produced." Cohen used an "extravagant publicity machine" to bring attention to the show, with the first 100 ticket buyers receiving "folding chairs and a picnic lunch catered by the Brasserie restaurant." The show takes place in the memory of Protestant minister David Griffith, recalling conflict within the Morgan family over the possible formation of a miners' union within the village, and the romance between Griffith himself and Angharad of the Morgans, who ultimately marries the mine owner instead.
Ken Mandelbaum argued that a Time for Singing pointed the way to later grand musicals like Les Misérables
Les Misérables (musical)
Les Misérables , colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz , is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg, based on the novel of the same name by Victor Hugo....
and Grand Hotel
Grand Hotel (musical)
Grand Hotel is a musical with a book by Luther Davis and music and lyrics by Robert Wright and George Forrest, with additional lyrics and music by Maury Yeston....
in both its staging and its music, which was "richer and more serious" than other shows of the period, with a "cinematic fluidity and continuous movement" that later became common in 1980s musicals.
Song list
Act I- Come You Men - Male Singing Chorus
- How Green Was My Valley - David Griffith and Chorus
- Old Long John - Male Singing Chorus
- Here Come Your Men - Male Singing Chorus
- What a Good Day Is Saturday - Beth Morgan, Gwillym Morgan, Angharad Morgan, Brothers and Company
- Peace Come to Every Heart - Company
- Someone Must Try - David Griffith
- Oh, How I Adore Your Name - Angharad Morgan
- That's What Young Ladies Do - David Griffith
- When He Looks At Me - Angharad Morgan
- Far From Home - Beth Morgan, Angharad Morgan, Gwillym Morgan and Brothers
- I Wonder If - Brothers
- What A Party - Gwillym Morgan, David Griffith, Cyfartha Lewis, Dai Bando and Brothers
- Let Me Love You - Angharad Morgan
- Why Would Anyone Want to Get Married? - Huw Morgan, Brothers, Beth Morgan and Gwillym Morgan
- A Time For Singing - Beth Morgan and Company
Act II
- When the Baby Comes - Company
- I'm Always Wrong - Angharad Morgan
- There is Beautiful You Are - David Griffith
- Three Ships - Beth Morgan, Bronwen Jenkins, Ivor Morgan and Company
- Tell Her - Huw Morgan and Gwillym Morgan
- There Is Beautiful You Are (Reprise) - David Griffith
- Let Me Love You (Reprise) - Angharad Morgan and David Griffith
- And The Mountains Sing Back - David Griffith
- Gone in Sorrow - Company
- How Green Was My Valley (Reprise) - Company