Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater is a 1979 musical that marked the first collaboration of composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman. Based on Kurt Vonnegut's 1965 novel of the same name, the musical tells the story of Eliot Rosewater, a millionaire who develops a social conscience and creates a foundation to improve the lives of the citizens of an impoverished Indiana town.

Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
Promo art for the 2016 Encores! production
MusicAlan Menken
LyricsHoward Ashman
Dennis Green
BookHoward Ashman
BasisKurt Vonnegut novel God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
Productions1979 Off-Broadway
1981 Arena Stage
2016 Encores! Off-Center

Productions

The musical had a showcase in May 1979 at the WPA Theater in New York City. Directed by Ashman, Frederick Coffin played Eliot Rosewater and Jonathan Hadary played Mushari. Menken played the keyboards.[1]

The musical transferred to the Entermedia Theatre Off-Broadway, where it opened on October 14, 1979 and closed on November 24, after 49 performances. Directed by Ashman, the production featured Frederick Coffin (Eliot Rosewater), Janie Sell (Sylvia Rosewater), and Jonathan Hadary (Norman Mushari).[2]

The musical was produced at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. in May to June 1981, again directed by Ashman and starring Coffin. The cast also featured Robert Westenberg, Steve Liebman, Theresa Rabov, and Leslie Cass.[3]

In March 2003, Rosewater was performed in concert as part of the CooperArts series at the Cooper Union; the concert featured Jim Walton (Eliot Rosewater), Carolee Carmello (Sylvia Rosewater), and David Pittu (Norman Mushari).[4]

The New England premiere of the show was performed from April 14–24, 2016 by Cape Cod Community College, in West Barnstable Massachusetts. The cast was made up of primarily students and most had heard of the book (Kurt Vonnegut was a resident of the area) however not many knew that it had been made into a musical.

An Encores! Off-Center staged concert ran at New York City Center from July 27–30, 2016. The production starred Skylar Astin (Norman Mushari), Santino Fontana (Eliot Rosewater), Brynn O'Malley (Sylvia), and James Earl Jones (Kilgore Trout). The production also featured Rebecca Naomi Jones and was directed by Michael Mayer.[5][6][7][8] This cast recorded the first studio recording of this musical in 2017.

Cast and characters
Characters WPA Theater (1979)[1][9][10] Off-Broadway (1979)[2] Arena Stage (1981)[10] Cooper Union (2003)[4] Encores! (2016)[5]
Eliot Rosewater Frederick Coffin Jim Walton Santino Fontana
Sylvia Rosewater Mimi Turque Janie Sell Barbara Andres Carolee Carmello Brynn O'Malley
Norman Mushari Jonathan Hadary Robert Westenberg David Pittu Skylar Astin

Musical numbers

Source: CurtainUp[7]

gollark: I've never used it so it might be bad.
gollark: You *can* do that locally. There's software for it.
gollark: I vaguely remember reading that people just got rid of drives with bad sectors, since usually they would soon develop more bad sectors.
gollark: Why do you *have* 11 copies of the same data on disks in the same place, anyway? Weird way to do backups.
gollark: Oh, the SSDs are probably sensible then.

References
  1. Gussow, Mel. "Stage: ‘God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater’" The New York Times, May 21, 1979
  2. http://iobdb.com/Production/2384
  3. Martin, Judith. "'Rosewater': True Kitsch" "The Washington Post", May 15, 1981
  4. Jones, Kenneth. "Menken & Ashman's 'God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater' Gets NYC Concert March 7" Playbill, March 6, 2003
  5. Clement, Olivia. "James Earl Jones Joins 'God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater'" Playbill, June 27, 2016
  6. Donovan, Deirdre. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater theaterscene.com, accessed October 22, 2019
  7. Sommer, Elyse. "A CurtainUp Review. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater at Encores! Off-Center" curtainup.com, July 28, 2016
  8. Stewart, Zachary. "Review. 'Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater'" theatermania.com, July 28, 2016
  9. Weinstock, Matt. "The Making of God Bless You Mr. Rosewater" Playbill, July 26, 2016
  10. Dietz, Dan. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater "Casts, Credits, Songs, Critical Reception and Performance Data of More Than 1,800 Shows", McFarland, 2010, ISBN 0-786457317, p.589
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