Scarlett 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 score by Harold Rome. The original Japanese

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

 book is by Kazuo Kikuta. The Tokyo production was directed by American director/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...

, with musical direction by Lehman Engel

Lehman Engel

Lehman Engel was an American composer and conductor of Broadway musicals, television and film.-Work in theatre, television and films:...

.

Based on Margaret Mitchell

Margaret Mitchell

Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell was an American author and journalist. Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937 for her epic American Civil War era novel, Gone with the Wind, which was the only novel by Mitchell published during her lifetime.-Family:Margaret Mitchell was born in Atlanta,...

's bestseller Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind

The slaves depicted in Gone with the Wind are primarily loyal house servants, such as Mammy, Pork and Uncle Peter, and these slaves stay on with their masters even after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 sets them free...

, it traces the fate of vain, self-centered Southern belle

Southern belle

A southern belle is an archetype for a young woman of the American Old South's upper class....

 Scarlett O'Hara

Scarlett O'Hara

Scarlett O' Hara is the protagonist in Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind and in the later film of the same name...

 and dashing blockade

Blockade

A blockade is an effort to cut off food, supplies, war material or communications from a particular area by force, either in part or totally. A blockade should not be confused with an embargo or sanctions, which are legal barriers to trade, and is distinct from a siege in that a blockade is usually...

 runner Rhett Butler

Rhett Butler

Rhett Butler is a fictional character and one of the main protagonists of Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.-Role:In the beginning of the novel, we first meet Rhett at the Twelve Oaks Plantation barbecue, the home of John Wilkes and his son Ashley and daughters Honey and India Wilkes...

, who share a passionately turbulent relationship, from the days prior to the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 through the war itself and the period of Reconstruction that follows it.

The original Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

 production was presented in two parts - each for 6 months - and each ran four hours long. It was wildly popular. The show underwent severe trimming when it was translated into English, reduced to one part but still close to 4 hours long. It had a new book adapted by Horton Foote

Horton Foote

Albert Horton Foote, Jr. was an American playwright and screenwriter, perhaps best known for his Academy Award-winning screenplays for the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird and the 1983 film Tender Mercies, and his notable live television dramas during the Golden Age of Television...

 and was rechristened Gone with the Wind. 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...

 version, produced by Harold Fielding

Harold Fielding

Harold Lewis Fielding was an English theatre producer.Fielding was one of Britain's foremost theatrical producers who produced several musicals, including Mame, Charlie Girl, Half a Sixpence, Show Boat, Scarlett, Barnum, Sweet Charity, The Biograph Girl, and Ziegfeld.The son of a stockbroker,...

 and again directed by 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...

, opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane

The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...

 in 1972, with a cast headed by June Ritchie

June Ritchie

June Ritchie is a British actress. She is perhaps best known for starring in the role of Ingrid Rothwell opposite Alan Bates in the 1962 film adaptation of A Kind of Loving...

, Harve Presnell

Harve Presnell

Harve Presnell was an American actor and singer. He began his career in the mid 1950s as a classical baritone, singing with orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States...

, Patricia Michael, and Robert Swann

Robert Swann

Robert Swann may refer to:*Robert L. Swann , comptroller of the State of Maryland in the United States*Robert L. Swann , American lawyer, and Colonel in the United States Armed Services...

. The majority of reviews praised Ritchie's Scarlett and were duly impressed by Layton's staging, but criticized Foote's treatment, which relied heavily on the audience's prior knowledge of the characters and plot and as a result was sketchy in its presentation of both. Still, Fielding was encouraged enough to schedule a 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...

 opening for April 7, 1974.

In August 1973, a revised version of the London production was mounted at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion

Dorothy Chandler Pavilion

The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion is one of the halls in the Los Angeles Music Center . The Music Center's other halls include the Mark Taper Forum, Ahmanson Theatre, and Walt Disney Concert Hall.The Pavilion has 3,197 seats spread over four tiers, with chandeliers, wide curving stairways and rich décor...

 in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 by the city's Civic Light Opera Association, with Lesley Ann Warren

Lesley Ann Warren

Lesley Ann Warren is an American actress and singer. She has been nominated once for an Academy Award and Emmy Awards and five times for Golden Globe, winning one....

, Pernell Roberts

Pernell Roberts

Pernell Elvin Roberts, Jr. was an American stage, movie and television actor, as well as a singer. In addition to guest starring in over 60 television series, he was widely known for his roles as Ben Cartwright's eldest son, Adam Cartwright, on the western series Bonanza, a role he played from...

, Udana Power and Terence Monk in the leads. The strongly negative reviews prompted Layton to make numerous changes throughout the Los Angeles and subsequent San Francisco runs, but Fielding cancelled his plan to move the show to 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...

. In 1976, Lucia Victor staged a production in Dallas that travelled to three other cities, but that was the last time the musical was produced.

Song list (Japanese Cast Album)

Act I

• Overture/He Loves Me
• We Belong to You
• Scarlett
• We Belong to You (Reprise)
• Two of a Kind
• Two of a Kind (Reprise)/Blissful Christmas/My Soldier/Blissful Christmas (Reprise)
• Goodbye My Honey
• Lonely Stranger
• A Time for Love
• What Is Love?

• Gambling Man
• Which Way is Home?

Act II

• Entracte/Bonnie Blue Flag
• O'Hara
• The Newlyweds Song
• Strange and Wonderful
• Blueberry Eyes
• Little Wonder
• Bonnie Gone
• Finale

Song list (London Cast Album)

Act I

• Overture/Today's The Day
• We Belong to You
• Tara
• Two of a Kind
• Blissful Christmas/Home Again/Tomorrow Is Another Day
• Lonely Stranger
• A Time for Love
• Which Way Is Home?

Act II

• Entracte
• How Often, How Often
• If Only
• A Southern Lady
• Marrying For Fun
• Blueberry Eyes
• Strange and Wonderful
• Little Wonders
• Bonnie Gone
• It Doesn't Matter Now/Finale

Songs (Los Angeles - First Performance)

Note: The score was heavily cut and revised during the Los Angeles & San Francisco runs
Act I

• Overture/Today's The Day
• Cakewalk
• We Belong to You
• Scarlett
• We Belong to You (Reprise)
• Bonnie Blue Flag
• Bazaar Hymn
• Virginia Reel
• Quadrille
• Two of a Kind
• Blissful Christmas
• My Soldier
• Tomorrow Is Another Day
• Ashley's Departure
• Where Is My Soldier Boy?/Why Did They Die?/Johnny Is My Darling/Bonnie Blue Flag

• Lonely Stranger
• Atlanta Burning
• Tomorrow Is Another Day (Reprise)

Act II

• If Only
• How Often
• Gone With The Wind
• How Lucky
• A Southern Lady
• Marrying For Fun
• Brand New Friends
• Miss Fiddle-Dee-Dee
• Blueberry Eyes
• Bonnie Gone
• Two Of A Kind (Reprise)
• It Doesn't Matter Now