| My Favorite Year | |
|---|---|
 Original Production Poster | |
| Music | Stephen Flaherty |
| Lyrics | Lynn Ahrens |
| Book | Joseph Dougherty |
| Basis | 1982 film My Favorite Year |
| Productions | 1992 Broadway |
My Favorite Year is a musical with a book by Joseph Dougherty, music by Stephen Flaherty, and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. It is based on the 1982 film of the same name.
The musical opened on Broadway at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater on December 10, 1992, and closed on January 10, 1993, after 36 performances and 45 previews. The cast included Evan Pappas, Tim Curry, Tom Mardirosian, Katie Finneran, Andrea Martin (in her Broadway debut), Josh Mostel, and Lainie Kazan, who reprised the role of Benjy's mother she had played in the film. The show was directed by Ron Lagomarsino and choreographed by Thommie Walsh, with scenic design by Thomas Lynch, costume design by Patricia Zipprodt, and lighting design by Jules Fisher, with associate lighting designer Peggy Eisenhauer.
The production experienced many challenges, and constant revisions were made by the creative team during previews. [1]
My Favorite Year received mixed-to-negative reviews. The New York Times's Frank Rich called the musical "a missed opportunity, a bustling but too frequently flat musical that suffers from another vogue of the 1950s, an identity crisis," [2] and disapproved of the melodramatic turn taken in the show's second act. Time magazine called it a "barren Broadway musical." [3]
The original cast recording was released by RCA Victor.
In March 2007, The Chicago Sun-Times revealed that Flaherty and Ahrens were "reworking the show with an eye on a new Broadway production." [4] Flaherty said that "In hindsight, I think our decision to paint the musical in somewhat darker colors was a mistake." Among the revisions made to the show are two new songs, incorporated into a March 2007 production of the show at the Bailiwick Repertory Theatre, Chicago. [5]
Musicals Tonight! in New York City presented a staged concert in April 2003. [6]
The York Theatre Company Musicals in Mufti in New York City presented a staged concert in December 2014. Lynn Ahrens reminisced about the first time Andrea Martin sang "Professional Showbizness Comedy": "It bombed.... By the time we got done with our rewrites...she stopped the show." [7]
| Original Broadway Cast (1992) [8] | York Theatre Cast (2014) [9] | 25th Anniversary Concert (2017) [10] | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benjy Stone | Evan Pappas | Adam Chanler-Berat | |
| Alan Swann | Tim Curry | Douglas Sills | |
| King Kaiser | Tom Mardirosian | Richard Kind | |
| Alice Miller | Andrea Martin | Leslie Kritzer | Carolee Carmello |
| K.C. Downing | Lannyl Stephens | Rose Hemingway | |
| Belle May Steinberg Carroca | Lainie Kazan | Christine Pedi | Caroline O'Connor |
| Sy Benson | Josh Mostel | Daniel Marcus | |
| Herb Lee | Ethan Phillips | Aaron Galligan-Stierle | |
| Leo Silver | Paul Stolarsky | Thom Sesma | |
| Rookie Carroca | Thomas Ikeda | Francis Jue | Steven Eng |
| Uncle Morty | David Lipman | Daniel Marcus | |
| Aunt Sadie | Mary Stout | Barbara Marineau | |
| Tess | Katie Finneran | Bree Banker | |
In the 1950s, Benjy Stone (a Mel Brooks-type), is a sketch writer for a live television variety show starring King Kaiser (a Sid Caesar-type) ("Twenty Million People"). Signed for a guest appearance is Alan Swann (an Errol Flynn-type), a one-time movie idol whose career was disrupted by his addiction to alcohol and loose women. Benjy writes a sketch for Swann about a Musketeer and a princess being captured ("The Musketeer Sketch"). The task of keeping him sober and celibate until airtime falls to Benjy, who soon finds himself involved in a sequence of shenanigans.
Various characters, including Benjy's pushy mother Belle Steinberg Carroca and Alan Swann's estranged daughter Tess, complicate Benjy's task. The other writers, Sy, Alice and Herb, add to the chaos.
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The album, My Favorite Year (Original Broadway Cast Recording) was released in 1993 with Andrea Martin, Lainie Kazan and Tim Curry on RCA Victor.
| Year | Award ceremony | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Tony Award | Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical | Tim Curry | Nominated |
| Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical | Andrea Martin | Won | ||
| Lainie Kazan | Nominated | |||
| Drama Desk Award | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical | Josh Mostel | Nominated | |
| Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical | Andrea Martin | Won | ||
| Outstanding Orchestrations | Michael Starobin | Nominated | ||
| Outer Critics Circle Award | Outstanding Actress in a Musical | Lainie Kazan | Nominated | |
| Theatre World Award | Andrea Martin | Won | ||
My Favorite Year is a 1982 American comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Richard Benjamin and written by Norman Steinberg and Dennis Palumbo from a story written by Palumbo. The film tells the story of a young comedy writer and stars Peter O'Toole, Mark Linn-Baker, Jessica Harper, and Joseph Bologna. O'Toole was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. The film was adapted into an unsuccessful 1992 Broadway musical of the same name.
Rodgers and Hammerstein was a theater-writing team of composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and lyricist-dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960), who together created a series of innovative and influential American musicals. Their musical theater writing partnership has been called the greatest of the 20th century.
Andrea Louise Martin is an American and Canadian actress, best known for her work in the television series SCTV and Great News. She has appeared in films such as Black Christmas (1974), Wag the Dog (1997), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002), My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016), Little Italy (2018) and My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 (2023). She has also lent her voice to the animated films Anastasia (1997), The Rugrats Movie (1998), and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001). Since 2021, she co-stars in the supernatural drama series Evil. She is currently playing a recurring role on Only Murders in the Building (2021).
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Lainie Kazan is an American actress and singer. She was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for St. Elsewhere and the 1993 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for My Favorite Year. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her role in My Favorite Year (1982). Kazan played Maria Portokalos in the My Big Fat Greek Wedding franchise. She also played Aunt Freida on The Nanny.
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