| Urban Cowboy | |
|---|---|
 Broadway poster | |
| Music | Jeff Blumenkrantz Jason Robert Brown Others |
| Lyrics | Jeff Blumenkrantz Jason Robert Brown Others |
| Book | Aaron Latham Phillip Oesterman |
| Basis | Urban Cowboy by James Bridges Aaron Latham |
| Productions | 2003 Broadway |
Urban Cowboy is a musical with a book by Aaron Latham and Phillip Oesterman and a score by Broadway composer-lyricists Jeff Blumenkrantz and Jason Robert Brown and a variety of country music tunesmiths, including Clint Black and Charlie Daniels.
Based on the 1980 screenplay by Latham and James Bridges, which had been adapted from a magazine article about Texas nightlife written by Latham, the plot focuses on Bud Davis, a country boy who moves to the big city for an oil refinery job and begins spending his nights at Gilley's, the local honky tonk, where he soon meets cowgirl Sissy. The trials they face and hurdles they need to overcome throughout their courtship and marriage are played out against a background of country-western music.
Following a run at Miami's Coconut Grove Playhouse, the show transferred to Broadway. After 26 previews, it opened on March 27, 2003 at the Broadhurst Theatre, where it closed on May 18 after 60 performances. [1]
The unfavorable reviews described it as "vulgar and bland" and "assembled according to a low and specific assessment of audience expectations" [2] and "a musical whose creators weren't quite ready to get on the horse" filled with songs "used haphazardly and devoid of dramatic value". [3]
Directed by Lonny Price, the cast of mostly newcomers included Matt Cavenaugh and Jenn Colella, both making their Broadway debuts. Also in the cast was Broadway veteran Sally Mayes who garnered a Drama Desk Award nomination for her portrayal of Aunt Corene.
The show was Tony Award-nominated for Best Choreography (Melinda Roy) and Best Original Score, with an unprecedented total of thirty composers and lyricists cited in the latter category. An original cast album was never released.
The musical had both old and original music, with country music and songs from the film as well as original songs. [1]
Brigadoon is a musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, and music by Frederick Loewe. The song "Almost Like Being in Love", from the musical, has become a standard. It features two American tourists who stumble upon Brigadoon, a mysterious Scottish village that appears for only one day every 100 years. Tommy, one of the tourists, falls in love with Fiona, a young woman from Brigadoon.
Charles Edward Daniels was an American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Daniels' music encompassed multiple genres in a career spanning five decades, including southern rock, country rock, country, bluegrass, blues and gospel. He was best known for his number-one country hit "The Devil Went Down to Georgia". Much of his output, including all but one of his eight Billboard Hot 100 charting singles, was credited to the Charlie Daniels Band.
Jason Robert Brown is an American musical theatre composer, lyricist, and playwright. Brown's music sensibility fuses pop-rock stylings with theatrical lyrics. He is the recipient of three Tony Awards for his work on Parade and The Bridges of Madison County.
George Forrest was an American writer of music and lyrics for musical theatre best known for the show Kismet, adapted from the works of Alexander Borodin. He was also known professionally at times as Chet Forrest.
Robert Craig Wright was an American composer-lyricist for Hollywood and the musical theatre, best known for the Broadway musical and musical film Kismet, for which he and his professional and romantic partner George Forrest adapted themes by Alexander Borodin and added lyrics. Kismet was one of several Wright and Forrest creations that was commissioned by impresario Edwin Lester for the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera. Song of Norway, Gypsy Lady, Magdalena, and their adaptation of The Great Waltz were also commissioned by Lester for the LACLO. The LACLO then exported most of these productions to Broadway.
Richard Adler was an American lyricist, writer, composer and producer of several Broadway shows.
The BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop is a workshop in New York for musical theatre composers, lyricists and librettists.
Jeff Blumenkrantz is an American actor, composer and lyricist.
A Class Act is a quasi-autobiographical musical loosely based on the life of composer-lyricist Edward Kleban, who died at the age of 48 in 1987. Featuring a book by Linda Kline and Lonny Price along with music and lyrics by Kleban himself, the musical uses flashbacks and the device of time running backwards to retrace the high and low points of the composer's personal and professional life.
Mr. Wonderful is a musical with a book by Joseph Stein and Will Glickman, and music and lyrics by Jerry Bock, Larry Holofcener, and George David Weiss.
Harold Clayton MacHackady, best known as Hal Hackady, and sometimes credited as Hal Hackaday, was an American lyricist, librettist and screenwriter.
The 57th Annual Tony Awards was held at Radio City Music Hall on June 8, 2003, and broadcast by CBS television. The event was hosted for the first time by Australian actor Hugh Jackman.
Sony Music Nashville is the country music branch of the Sony Music Group.
Million Dollar Quartet is a jukebox musical with a book by Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux. It dramatizes the Million Dollar Quartet recording session of December 4, 1956, among early rock and roll/country stars who recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis, which are Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins, and newcomer Jerry Lee Lewis. The musical opened on Broadway in 2010, after several tryouts and regional productions, and spawned a 2011 West End production.
Robert Neill Morris, known professionally as Colonel Robert Morris, was an American musician, drummer, singer and songwriter. He was also known as "The Man with the Golden Pen".
Dew Drop Inn is a musical with music by Alfred Goodman, lyrics by Cyrus Wood, and a book by Walter DeLeon and Edward Delaney Dunn. While Goodman was the principal composer for the work, composers Rudolf Friml, John Frederick Coots, and Jean Schwartz also contributed songs to the show in collaboration with lyricist McElbert Moore.
Jerome Lincoln Seelen was an American screenwriter and lyricist born March 11, 1912 in New York City and died September 12, 1981 in San Diego (California).