Maggie Flynn

Maggie Flynn
Music	Hugo Peretti Luigi Creatore George David Weiss
Lyrics	Hugo Peretti Luigi Creatore George David Weiss
Book	Hugo Peretti Luigi Creatore George David Weiss Morton DaCosta
Basis	The New York Draft Riots
Productions	1968 Broadway

Maggie Flynn is a musical with a book by Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore, and George David Weiss (in collaboration with Morton DaCosta) and music and lyrics by Peretti, Creatore, and Weiss.

Based on an idea by John Flaxman, it was inspired by a true story set in the New York Draft Riots of 1863. The title character, an Irish woman providing asylum for orphaned children of runaway slaves, is on the verge of marrying a Union Army colonel when her vagabond husband Phineas Flynn (who abandoned her to pursue a theatrical career and whom she had presumed was dead) returns to the scene. The cast of characters is a mélange of Confederate insurgents, prostitutes and drunks, bigoted socialites, circus performers and a passel of African American kids endangered by the local political situation.

Production

The Broadway production, directed by DaCosta and choreographed by Brian Macdonald, opened on October 23, 1968 at the ANTA Playhouse, where it ran for 82 performances and 6 previews. The cast included real-life spouses Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy, who was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, and Robert Kaye as Col. John Farraday. Among the orphans were newcomers Irene Cara, Giancarlo Esposito, and Stephanie Mills.

Critics found the basic situation of Jones and the children threatened by political unrest to be too similar to The Sound of Music,^[1] albeit told in an unrelentingly darker manner, and efforts to equate the New York Draft Riots with contemporary protests against the Vietnam War heavy-handed and counter-productive. "It is worth noting that two of the first night critics came up with the same line, calling Maggie Flynn the best Broadway musical since Her First Roman — thereby honoring a desperately lousy mishmash that opened three days earlier." ^[2]

An original cast recording was released by RCA Victor and re-released on CD by DRG in 2009.^[2]

Plot

During the American Civil War, Maggie Flynn, a young Irish woman living in New York City, marries Phineas, charming but a scoundrel, who leaves her to join the circus. Maggie runs an orphanage for black orphans, and soon is engaged to Colonel John Farraday, a steady and faithful beau. However, Phineas, now called "The Clown" returns to win back his wife. They become caught up in the New York Draft Riots of 1863 and the orphanage burns down.

Songs

Act I Never Gonna Make Me Fight It's a Nice Cold Morning I Wouldn't Have You Any Other Way Learn How to Laugh Maggie Flynn The Thank You Song Look Around Your Little World Maggie Flynn (Reprise) I Won't Let It Happen Again How About a Ball? Pitter Patter I Won't Let It Happen Again (Reprise)

Act II Never Gonna Make Me Fight (Reprise) Why Can't I Walk Away? The Game of War Mr. Clown Pitter Patter (Reprise) The Riot Don't You Think It's Very Nice? Mr. Clown (Reprise) Maggie Flynn (Reprise)

Award nomination

• 1969 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical - Jack Cassidy

Notes

1. ^ Devine, Lawrence."The Perils of 'Maggie' "New York Magazine, Oct 14, 1968
2. ^ ^{a b} Suskin, Steven."On the Record: Maggie Flynn, and Solo Albums from Ann Hampton Callaway and Jill O'Hara" playbill.com, March 1, 2009

References

• Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops by Ken Mandelbaum, published by St. Martin's Press (1991), pages 90–91 (ISBN 0-312-06428-4)
• Open a New Window: The Broadway Musical in the 1960s by Ethan Mordden, published by Palgrave (2001), pages 213-15 (ISBN 0-312-23952-1)

External links

• Internet Broadway Database listing