I Love My Wife
Encyclopedia
I Love My Wife is a musical
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 a book and lyrics by Michael Stewart
Michael Stewart (playwright)
Michael Stewart was an American playwright and librettist.Born Michael Stuart Rubin in Manhattan, Stewart attended Queens College, and is a graduate of Yale School of Drama with a Master of Fine Arts from 1953. Michael Stewart (August 1, 1924 – September 20, 1987) was an American playwright...

 and music by Cy Coleman
Cy Coleman
Cy Coleman was an American composer, songwriter, and jazz pianist.-Life and career:He was born Seymour Kaufman on June 14, 1929, in New York City to Eastern European Jewish parents, and was raised in the Bronx. His mother, Ida was an apartment landlady and his father was a brickmason...

, based on a play by Luis Rego.

A satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

 of the sexual revolution
Sexual revolution
The sexual revolution was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the Western world from the 1960s into the 1980s...

 of the 1970s, the musical takes place on Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...

 in suburban Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton is the capital of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Trenton had a population of 84,913...

, where two married couples who have been close friends since high school find themselves contemplating a ménage-à-quatre.

Synopsis

In Trenton
Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton is the capital of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Trenton had a population of 84,913...

, New Jersey old high school buddies Wally (now an executive in public relations) and Alvin (a furniture mover) discuss the possibility of adding some spice to their lives by having a threesome. Alvin suggests to his wife Cleo that they share their bed with Monica, Wally's wife. Cleo thinks that she would enjoy Wally. They agree that whoever enters first becomes he evening's partner, but the couple walks in together. The three discuss the situation after Monica has left, and decide on a foursome on Christmas Eve.

Alvin and Cleo arrive for dinner and the later foursome on Christmas Eve, but while Monica is initially unhappy with the arrangement, she finally agrees. Too excited to eat, they undress and get into bed and take pot
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...

 to relax. As Wally suggests ideas from a sex manual, the group discards all of the ideas.

Wally and Alvin arrange to meet after the holidays for a drink. Cleo and Monica meet at a store while exchanging their Christmas gifts. Each couple goes their own way, still friends.

Song list

Act I
  • We're Still Friends - Company
  • Monica - Alvin, Monica and Four Guys
  • By Threes - Wally, Alvin and Harvey
  • A Mover's Life - Alvin and Four Guys
  • Love Revolution - Cleo
  • Someone Wonderful I Missed - Monica and Cleo
  • Sexually Free - Alvin, Cleo and Wally


Act II
  • Hey There, Good Times - Harvey, Stanley, Quentin and Norman
  • Lovers on Christmas Eve - Monica, Wally and Norman
  • Scream - Harvey, Stanley, Quentin and Norman
  • Everybody Today is Turning On - Alvin and Wally
  • Married Couple Seeks Married Couple - Alvin, Cleo, Wally and Monica
  • I Love My Wife - Alvin and Wally


Productions

The pre-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...

 tryout opened at the Forrest Theatre
Forrest Theatre
The Forrest Theatre is a live theatre venue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is managed by The Shubert Organization.The Forrest Theatre was built in 1927. It was designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp and has a seating capacity of 1,851. It was named after the 19th century actor Edwin Forrest, who...

 in Philadelphia on March 21, 1977. The Broadway production opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre
Ethel Barrymore Theatre
The Ethel Barrymore Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 243 West 47th Street in midtown-Manhattan, named for actress Ethel Barrymore....

 on April 17, 1977 and closed on May 20, 1979, after 857 performances and seven previews. Directed by Gene Saks
Gene Saks
Gene Saks is an American stage and film director.-Life and career:Saks was born in New York City, the son of Beatrix and Morris J. Saks...

 and choreographed by Onna White
Onna White
Onna White was a Canadian choreographer and dancer nominated for eight Tony Awards.-Career:Born in Inverness, Nova Scotia, White began taking dance lessons at the age of twelve, and eventually her studies took her to the famed San Francisco Ballet Company, where she danced in the first full-length...

, the cast included James Naughton
James Naughton
James Naughton is an American director, theater, film and television actor.-Early life:Naughton was born in Middletown, Connecticut, the son of Rosemary and Joseph Naughton, both of whom were teachers He is the brother of actor David Naughton.-Career:Naughton graduated from Brown University and...

 as Wally, Joanna Gleason
Joanna Gleason
Joanna Gleason is a Canadian actress and singer. She is a Tony Award-winning musical theatre actress and has also had a number of notable film and TV roles.-Early life:...

 as Monica, Lenny Baker
Lenny Baker
Leonard Joel “Lenny” Baker was an American actor of stage and film and screen best known for his Tony Award-winning performance in I Love My Wife in 1977.-Early life:...

, as Alvin, Ilene Graff
Ilene Graff
Ilene Graff is an American actress and singer.The Brooklyn native began her professional career as a teenager when she performed as a background singer and commercial actress while attending Van Buren High School in Queens Village...

 as Cleo, Michael Mark
Michael Mark (musician)
Michael Mark is an American musician, composer, and actor. Mark won a Drama Desk Award for his performance in the Broadway Musical, I Love My Wife and he was also part of the original cast of Harry Chapin’s Cotton Patch Gospel, a role that he also played for the televised version of the show. Mark...

 (Guitar) as Stanley, Joseph Saulter
Joseph Saulter
Joseph Saulter is an African-American musician, actor, and video game designer. He is the co-Founder of The Urban Video Game Academy and is currently the President of the DeKalb Council of the Arts, Chairman of the Diversity Advisory Board at the International Game Developers Association, and a...

 (Drummer) as Quenton, John Miller (bass) as Harvey, and Ken Bichel
Ken Bichel
Ken Bichel is an American actor, composer, pianist, and synthesizer musician. Bichel attended the Juilliard School where he graduated with a Bachelors degree in piano performance in the late 1960s...

 (Piano) as Norman. During the show's run, cast replacements include Tom
Tom Smothers
Tom Smothers is an American comedian, composer and musician, best known as half of the musical comedy team The Smothers Brothers, alongside his younger brother Dick.-Early life:...

 and Dick Smothers
Dick Smothers
Richard Remick "Dick" Smothers is an American actor, comedian, composer and musician. He is best known for being half of the musical comedy team, the Smothers Brothers, with his older brother Tom.-Life and career:...

, Tom Wopat
Tom Wopat
Tom Wopat is an American actor and singer. He first achieved fame as Luke Duke in the long-running 1979 television series The Dukes of Hazzard, along with John Schneider. He also played Jeff, one of Cybill Shepherd's ex-husbands in the TV series Cybill.-Life and career:Wopat was born in Lodi,...

, Janie Sell
Janie Sell
Jane Ann "Janie" Sell is an American actress.-Career:Sell won the Tony as Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Over Here!, which also starred the then-surviving Andrews Sisters, Maxene and Patty...

 and, in an African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 version, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs
Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs
Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in a number of films and television programs, including Claudine , Cooley High , Roots , Welcome Back, Kotter , Bangers and Mash , and The Jacksons: An American Dream .Lawrence's name, at least as shown in the credits of Welcome...

 and Hattie Winston
Hattie Winston
Hattie Mae Winston is an American television, film and Broadway actress best known for her role as Margaret on Becker and as a prominent cast member of the PBS children's series The Electric Company.-Early career:...

.

Original director and choreographer Joe Layton
Joe Layton
Joe Layton was an American director and choreographer known primarily for his work on Broadway.-Biography:Born Joseph Lichtman in Brooklyn, New York, Layton began his career as a dancer in Wonderful Town , and he appeared uncredited in the ensemble of the original live TV production of Rodgers and...

 was replaced due to injuries sustained in a fall.

The West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

 production opened on October 6, 1977 at the Prince of Wales Theatre
Prince of Wales Theatre
The Prince of Wales Theatre is a West End theatre on Coventry Street, near Leicester Square in the City of Westminster. It was established in 1884 and rebuilt in 1937, and extensively refurbished in 2004 by Sir Cameron Mackintosh, its current owner...

, where it ran for 401 performances. It was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Musical of the Year. The show originally starred Porridge
Porridge (TV series)
Porridge is a British situation comedy broadcast on BBC1 from 1974 to 1977, running for three series, two Christmas specials and a feature film. Written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, it stars Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale as two inmates at the fictional HMP Slade in Cumberland...

 and Rising Damp
Rising Damp
Rising Damp is a television sitcom produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV, first broadcast from 1974 to 1978. It was adapted for television by Eric Chappell from his well-received 1971 stage play, The Banana Box The series was the highest-ranking ITV sitcom on the 100 Best Sitcoms poll run in...

 star Richard Beckinsale
Richard Beckinsale
Richard Arthur Beckinsale was an English actor, best known for his roles as Lennie Godber in the popular BBC sitcom Porridge and Alan Moore in the British sitcom Rising Damp....

, who was replaced as the lead mid-run by Confessions of a Window Cleaner
Confessions of a Window Cleaner
Confessions of a Window Cleaner is a 1974 British sex comedy film, directed by Val Guest.Like the other films in the Confessions series; Confessions of a Pop Performer, Confessions of a Driving Instructor and Confessions from a Holiday Camp, it concerns the erotic adventures of Timothy Lea, based...

 actor Robin Askwith
Robin Askwith
Robin Askwith , is an English film actor, most famous for his role as Timmy Lea in the Confessions... sex comedies.-Confessions...:...

.

The band consisted of four on-stage musicians who were among the friends and acted in the opening scene. The show was filled with their shenanigans in the background during the songs. They sang along with some of the numbers and sometimes one of them took a solo and sang alone.

The Helen Hayes Theatre in Nyack
Nyack
Nyack may refer to:*Nyack, New York, a village*Nyack College, located in the village*USS Nyack, the name of two U.S. Navy vessels...

, New York presented the musical in April 2004.

A production was staged by the Reprise Theatre Company, Brentwood Theatre, Brentwood
Brentwood, Los Angeles, California
Brentwood is a district in western Los Angeles, California, United States. The district is located at the base of the Santa Monica Mountains, bounded by the San Diego Freeway on the east, Wilshire Boulevard on the south, the Santa Monica city limits on the southwest, the border of Topanga State...

, California, in December 2008. The musical starred Jason Alexander
Jason Alexander
Jay Scott Greenspan , better known by his professional name of Jason Alexander, is an American actor, writer, comedian, television director, producer, and singer. He is best known for his role as George Costanza on the television series Seinfeld, appearing in the sitcom from 1989 to 1998...

 (Alvin), Vicki Lewis
Vicki Lewis
Vicki Lewis is an American film, stage, television and voice actress best known for her role as Beth in the NBC sitcom NewsRadio.-Personal life:...

 (Cleo), Patrick Cassidy
Patrick Cassidy
Patrick Cassidy may refer to: * Patrick Cassidy , Irish classical composer of movie soundtracks* Patrick Cassidy , U.S. actor in musical theatre and television...

 (Wally), and Lea Thompson
Lea Thompson
Lea Katherine Thompson is an American actress and director. She is best known for her 1990s NBC situation comedy Caroline in the City and her portrayal of Lorraine Baines McFly, Marty McFly's mother, in the Back to the Future trilogy...

 (Monica).

Critical reviews

Clive Barnes
Clive Barnes (critic)
Clive Alexander Barnes, CBE was a British-born American writer and critic. From 1965 to 1977 he was the dance and theater critic for the New York Times, the most powerful position he had held, since its theater critics' reviews historically have had great influence on the success or failure of...

, reviewing for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

wrote that the musical is "bright, inventive, amusing and breezy." He noted that what Coleman and Stewart did regarding the band "is breathtakingly simple, but none...has ever done it before. They have taken the band and put it up on stage...The musicians are welded into the play, as a kind of Greek chorus." He especially noted that "It is a gorgeous cast-just right." Finally, he called the musical "mildly sexy, vastly diverting and highly amusing."

Awards and nominations

  • Tony Award for Best Musical
    Tony Award for Best Musical
    This is a list of winners and nominations for the Tony Award for Best Musical, first awarded in 1949. This award is presented to the producers of the musical.-1940s:* 1949: Kiss Me, Kate – Music and lyrics by Cole Porter, book by Samuel and Bella Spewack...

     (nominee)
  • Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (nominee)
  • Tony Award for Best Original Score (nominee)
  • Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Baker, winner)
  • Tony Award for Best Choreography (nominee)
  • Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical (winner)
  • Theatre World Award
    Theatre World Award
    The Theatre World Award, first awarded for the 1945-46 season, is an American honor presented annually to actors and actresses in recognition of an outstanding New York City stage debut performance, either on Broadway or off-Broadway.-History:...

     (Gleason, winner)
  • Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical
    Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical
    The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical was first awarded at the 1974-1975 Drama Desk Awards and has been awarded every year since. Before the 21st Drama Desk Awards, acting awards were given without making distinctions between roles in straight dramas as opposed to musicals, nor were there...

     (nominee)
  • Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical
    Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical
    The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical was first awarded at the 1974-1975 Drama Desk Awards and has been awarded every year since...

     (Baker, winner)
  • Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical
    Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical
    The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical was first awarded at the 1974-1975 Drama Desk Awards and has been awarded every year since...

     (Mark, Saulter, Miller, and Bichel, winners)
  • Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical
    Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical
    The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical was first awarded at the 1974–1975 Drama Desk Awards and has been awarded every year since...

     (nominee)
  • Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music
    Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music
    The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music is an annual award presented by the Drama Desk, a committee comprising New York City theatre critics, writers, and editors...

    (winner)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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