The Little Prince and the Aviator 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 by Hugh Wheeler

Hugh Wheeler

Hugh Callingham Wheeler was an English-born playwright, screenwriter, librettist, poet, and translator. He resided in the United States from 1934 until his death and became a naturalized citizen in 1942. He had attended London University.Under the noms de plume Patrick Quentin, Q...

, lyrics by Don Black

Don Black (musician)

Don Black, OBE is an English lyricist. His works have included numerous musicals, movie themes and hit songs. He has provided lyrics for John Barry, Charles Strouse, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Quincy Jones, Jule Styne, Henry Mancini, Michael Jackson, Elmer Bernstein, Michel Legrand, Hayley Westenra,...

, and music by John Barry

John Barry (composer)

John Barry Prendergast, OBE was an English conductor and composer of film music. He is best known for composing the soundtracks for 12 of the James Bond films between 1962 and 1987...

.

Based on the classic book

The Little Prince

The Little Prince , first published in 1943, is a novella and the most famous work of the French aristocrat writer, poet and pioneering aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ....

 by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry , officially Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint Exupéry , was a French writer, poet and pioneering aviator. He became a laureate of France's highest literary awards, and in 1939 was the winner of the U.S. National Book Award...

, the musical deviates from the original in that aviator

Aviator

An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...

 Toni, whose plane crashes in the Sahara Desert, explicitly is real-life author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 Saint-Exupéry, and the plot alternates flashbacks to actual events in his life with his interaction with the fiction

Fiction

Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...

al Little Prince, a refugee

Refugee

A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...

 from Asteroid

Asteroid

Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...

 B6-12.

Undaunted by the critical and commercial failure of the 1974 musical screen adaptation by Lerner

Alan Jay Lerner

Alan Jay Lerner was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre for both the stage and on film...

 and Loewe, A. Joseph Tandent, a co-producer of the movie who owned the rights to the story, proceeded with his plans for 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...

 production. To save money, he decided to forgo an out-of-town tryout.

Previews began on December 26, 1981 at the Alvin Theatre

Neil Simon Theatre

The Neil Simon Theatre, formerly the Alvin Theatre, is a Broadway venue built in 1927 and located at 250 West 52nd Street in midtown-Manhattan....

. Directed by Jerry Adler

Jerry Adler

Jerry Adler is an American theatre director, production supervisor and a television and film actor.Adler was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Pauline and Philip Adler, who was a general manager of the Group Theatre...

 and choreographed by Billy Wilson, it starred Michael York

Michael York (actor)

Michael York, OBE is an English actor.-Early life:York was born in Fulmer, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, the son of Florence Edith May , a musician; and Joseph Gwynne Johnson, a Llandovery born Welsh ex-Royal Artillery British Army officer and executive with Marks and Spencer department stores...

 as the Aviator and Anthony Rapp

Anthony Rapp

Anthony Deane Rapp is an American stage and film actor and singer best known for originating the role of Mark Cohen in the Broadway production of Rent in 1996 and later for reprising the role in the film version and the Broadway Tour of Rent in 2009...

 as the Little Prince, with Ellen Greene

Ellen Greene

Ellen Greene is an American singer and actress. Greene has had a long and varied career as a singer, particularly in cabaret, as an actor and singer in numerous stage productions, particularly musical theatre, as well as having performed in many films – notably Little Shop of Horrors...

 in a supporting role.

The show closed after sixteen previews. Producer Tandent sued the Nederlander Organization

Nederlander Organization

The Nederlander Organization, founded in 1912 by David T. Nederlander and based in Detroit, Michigan, is one of the largest operators of legitimate theatres and music venuesin the United States. Its first acquisition was a lease on the Detroit Opera House in 1912. The building was demolished in...

, claiming they had forced him to shut down the production with their demands for more money during its final week. He eventually was awarded $1,000,000, representing two-thirds of his investment.

Song list

Act I

• Par Avion - Toni, Georges and Suzanne
• Power Comes, Power Goes - Snake
• I Pity the Poor Poor Parisiennes - Toni
• Making Every Minute Count - Toni, Georges and Pilots
• Made for Each Other - Toni and Rose
• Wind, Sand, Stars - Toni, Georges and Pilots
• First Impressions - Little Prince
• A Day Will Never Be the Same - Fennec and Pilots
• I've Got You to Thank for All This - Suzanne
• I Don't Regret a Thing - Toni
• We Couldn't We Mustn't We Won't - Toni, Suzanne as a Child and Georges as a Child

Act II

• Watch Out for the Baobabs - Little Prince
• I Like My Misfortunes to Be Taken Seriously - Toni
• The Volcano Song - Little Prince
• More Than Just a Pretty Flower - Rose
• First Impressions (Reprise) - Little Prince
• The Volcano Song (Reprise) - Little Prince
• Playground of the Planets - Little Prince
• It Was You - Georges
• Grain of Sand - Little Prince
• I Don't Regret a Thing (Reprise) - Toni
• Sunset Song - Little Prince
• Little Prince/Stars Will Be Laughing - Toni and Little Prince