JFK: A Musical Drama 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 music by Will Holt

Will Holt

Will Holt is an American singer, songwriter, librettist and lyricist known first and primarily as a folk performer during the 1950s and 1960s and as an interpreter of the music of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht in performances and recordings with Martha Schlamme...

, and book and lyrics by Will Holt and Tom Sawyer. Based loosely on the life of John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

. It premiered at the Olympia Theatre, Dublin

Olympia Theatre, Dublin

The Olympia Theatre is a concert hall/theatre venue in Dublin, Ireland, located in Dame Street.-History:Built in 1879, it was originally called the "Star of Erin Music Hall". Two years later in 1881, it was renamed "Dan Lowrey's Music Hall" and was renamed again in 1889 to "Dan Lowrey's Palace of...

 on April 24th, 1997 and New York in 1998.

The production was directed and choreographed by Larry Fuller

Larry Fuller

Larry Fuller is an American choreographer, theatre director, dancer, and actor.Fuller began his career as a dancer/actor, appearing on Broadway in Carousel, The Music Man, Kean, Bravo Giovanni, and Funny Girl...

 and produced by Stewart F. Lane

Stewart F. Lane

Stewart F. Lane is a five-time Tony Award winning Broadway producer with two shows currently on Broadway: Priscilla Queen of the Desert andWar Horse. He also has a DVD out now based on his critically acclaimed book, Let's Put on a Show! and a new book called "Jews of Broadway" He has also...

. The role of JFK was played by Maurice Clarke. It also starred Gary Raymond

Gary Raymond

Gary Raymond is an English actor.He made his film debut as Cliff Lewis in Tony Richardson's film adaptation of John Osborne's Look Back in Anger , opposite Richard Burton and Claire Bloom...

, Brian DeSalvo, Monica Ernesti, Stella McCusker and Peter Vollebreght.

The musical was orchestrated by Peter Matz

Peter Matz

Peter Matz was an award winning American musician, composer, arranger and conductor. His musical career in film, theater, television and studio recording spanned fifty years, and he worked with a number of prominent artists, including Marlene Dietrich, Noël Coward and Barbra Streisand...

. No cast album was ever recorded of the show.

Upon the early closure of the musical, Frank Kilfeather of the Irish Times quipped "Can you remember where you where, the night they said "JFK" had been shut?".