Research Catalog

Details

Additional authors

1. Papp, Joseph
2. Amram, David
3. Barron, David
4. Colón, Willie, 1950-
5. Donizetti, Gaetano, 1797-1848
6. Elliott, William (William F.).
7. Finn, William
8. Hamlisch, Marvin
9. Holmes, Rupert
10. Jobriath
11. Killian, Scott
12. Legrand, Michel, 1932-2019
13. Link, Peter
14. MacDermot, Galt
15. Milton, James
16. Peaslee, Richard
17. Penn, William A.
18. Puccini, Giacomo, 1858-1924
19. Rundgren, Todd
20. Shawn, Allen
21. Sherman, Kim D. (Kim Daryl), 1954-
22. Shire, David
23. Steinman, Jim
24. Swados, Elizabeth
25. Sullivan, Arthur, 1842-1900
26. Tunick, Jonathan
27. Weill, Kurt, 1900-1950
28. Weinstock, Richard
29. Delacorte Theater (New York, N.Y.)
30. Public Theater (New York, N.Y.)
31. Vivian Beaumont Theater (New York, N.Y.)

Description

1. 284 linear feet (415 boxes)

Summary

1. The New York Shakespeare Festival music scores consist of music scores, scripts, notes, correspondence, and production material relating to productions staged by the New York Shakespeare Festival during Joseph Papp's tenure as administrative and artistic director (1965-1991). The collection primarily contains music scores for shows that originally appeared at the Public Theater, the Delacorte Theater, the Vivian Beaumont Theater, and the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, as well as scores for Broadway, international, and touring productions of some works. These scores include incidental music created for Shakespeare plays and other classic and contemporary dramatic works, as well as scores for original works of musical theater developed by the New York Shakespeare Festival. Prominent among the scores for Shakespeare productions are those by William Finn for A Winter's Tale (1989), Rupert Holmes, Twelfth Night (1986), Peter Link, The Comedy of Errors (1973), James Milton, The Tempest (1974), Richard Peaslee, Henry IV, Parts I and II (1981), William Penn, A Midsummer Night's Dream (1987) and Pericles (1974), Allen Shawn, A Midsummer Night's Dream (1982), David Shire, As You Like It (1973), Jonathan Tunick, Timon of Athens (1971), and Richard Weinstock, The Taming of the Shrew (1978). Especially well documented among the original musical theater works are scores for Galt MacDermot's Two Gentlemen of Verona (1971) and The Human Comedy (1983), Marvin Hamlisch's A Chorus Line (1975), and Rupert Holmes' The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1985). Some less familiar titles in this category are scores for the short-lived production of Lenny and the Heartbreakers (1983) with music by Scott Killian and Kim D. Sherman, a troubled musical adaptation of Molière's The Misanthrope (1977), which included music composed by the former glam rocker, Jobriath Boone, and an English language stage version of the film, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1979) with a score by Michel Legrand. Papp's interest in the rock musical also is represented by the score for Michael Weller's More Than You Deserve (1973) by Jim Steinman; this show was one of the first put on by the NYSF at Lincoln Center and had a cast that featured Meat Loaf. Notable musical revivals represented in the collection include Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera (1976) and Sir Arthur Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance (1980). Among the scores for non-Shakespeare plays are original works that cross genres, such as Ramiro Ramirez's "salsa musical," Mondongo (1976), with music by Willie Colón and David Barron, as well as music created for dramatic revivals, such as William Elliott's score for Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children (1980). A small amount of material unrelated to NYSF productions contains a score for David Amram's Concerto for small piano (1959) that had been given to Miranda Papp. There also are scripts and production materials for some works to be found within this collection.

Alternative title

1. New York Shakespeare Festival scores.

Subject

1. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 > Dramatic production
2. Theater > Production and direction
3. New York Shakespeare Festival Productions
4. Incidental music > Scores
5. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 > Musical settings
6. Theater > New York (State) > New York
7. Music in the theater
8. Arrangers (Musicians)
9. Scripts
10. Musical theater > New York (State) > New York
11. Scores
12. Musicals > Production and direction
13. Musical theater > Production and direction
14. Correspondence
15. Papp, Joseph
16. Composers
17. Musicals > Scores

Genre/Form

1. Correspondence.
2. Scores.
3. Scripts.

Call number

1. JPB 04-03

Note

1. The New York Shakespeare Festival Records are held by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and have been separated into four groups: paper records in the Billy Rose Theatre Collection, music in the Music Division, audio materials in the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound and video materials in TOFT.

Location of other archival materials (note)

1. See also the New York Shakespeare Festival records (*T-Mss 1993-028) in the Billy Rose Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts for

Biography (note)

1. Joseph Papp founded the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1954 in New York City. Papp's commitment to providing free productions of Shakespeare to New York City audiences led to the development of the New York Shakespeare Festival (NYSF) as a producing entity. With the establishment of the Public Theater as the administrative home of the Festival during the mid-1960s, Papp expanded his institutional mandate to include new American plays. Original music was a key feature of many Public Theater productions and scores were commissioned from an eclectic mix of composers, who straddled the worlds of serious and popular music, including David Amram and Elizabeth Swados, both of whom maintained long associations with the Public Theater during the Papp era. The NSYF also sponsored many productions that updated or put a contemporary spin on classic works, such as Galt MacDermot's musical versions of Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona (1971) and Saroyan's The Human Comedy (1983), and William Elliott's musical adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance (1980), transformation of Donizetti's opera, Don Pasquale, into Non Pasquale (1983), and modernization of Puccini's La Boheme (1984). The Public Theater also has placed a special emphasis on the development of original musical theater works, starting with Hair (1967). To serve this end, Papp also began a "musical laboratories" program in the late 1980s that offered workshops of new works, including a musical version of Joe Orton's Up Against It (1989), with a score by Todd Rundgren, and William Finn's Depression-era musical, Romance in Hard Times (1989). Perhaps the most influential musical to have been created at the Public, however, was A Chorus Line (1975), which, after opening at the company's downtown theater, later transferred to Broadway and went on to become the longest running Broadway musical at that time in 1983. The international success of A Chorus Line (which ran until 1990) helped to fund many other ambitious programs initiated by Papp, including having the NYSF join as a constituent of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in 1973. Other musicals that made the move to Broadway include Swados' Runaways (1978) and Rupert Holmes' The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1985). By the late 1980s, Papp had become ill and began to play less of a role in the NYSF's ongoing operations, though he remained a strong advocate for the arts until his death in 1991.

Indexes/finding aids (note)

1. Collection guide available in repository and on internet.

Author

1. New York Shakespeare Festival Productions.

Title

1. New York Shakespeare Festival music scores, 1965-1991.

Biography

1. Joseph Papp founded the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1954 in New York City. Papp's commitment to providing free productions of Shakespeare to New York City audiences led to the development of the New York Shakespeare Festival (NYSF) as a producing entity. With the establishment of the Public Theater as the administrative home of the Festival during the mid-1960s, Papp expanded his institutional mandate to include new American plays. Original music was a key feature of many Public Theater productions and scores were commissioned from an eclectic mix of composers, who straddled the worlds of serious and popular music, including David Amram and Elizabeth Swados, both of whom maintained long associations with the Public Theater during the Papp era. The NSYF also sponsored many productions that updated or put a contemporary spin on classic works, such as Galt MacDermot's musical versions of Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona (1971) and Saroyan's The Human Comedy (1983), and William Elliott's musical adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance (1980), transformation of Donizetti's opera, Don Pasquale, into Non Pasquale (1983), and modernization of Puccini's La Boheme (1984). The Public Theater also has placed a special emphasis on the development of original musical theater works, starting with Hair (1967). To serve this end, Papp also began a "musical laboratories" program in the late 1980s that offered workshops of new works, including a musical version of Joe Orton's Up Against It (1989), with a score by Todd Rundgren, and William Finn's Depression-era musical, Romance in Hard Times (1989). Perhaps the most influential musical to have been created at the Public, however, was A Chorus Line (1975), which, after opening at the company's downtown theater, later transferred to Broadway and went on to become the longest running Broadway musical at that time in 1983. The international success of A Chorus Line (which ran until 1990) helped to fund many other ambitious programs initiated by Papp, including having the NYSF join as a constituent of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in 1973. Other musicals that made the move to Broadway include Swados' Runaways (1978) and Rupert Holmes' The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1985). By the late 1980s, Papp had become ill and began to play less of a role in the NYSF's ongoing operations, though he remained a strong advocate for the arts until his death in 1991.

Location of other archival materials

1. See also the New York Shakespeare Festival records (*T-Mss 1993-028) in the Billy Rose Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts for other materials on Joseph Papp and the New York Shakespeare Festival.

Indexes

1. Collection guide available in repository and on internet.

Connect to:

1. Request Access to Music & Recorded Sound Division Special Collections material
2. Finding Aid

Occupation

1. Arrangers (Musicians).
2. Composers.

Added author

1. Papp, Joseph.
2. Amram, David. Concerto for small piano.
3. Barron, David. Mondongo.
4. Colón, Willie, 1950- Mondongo.
5. Donizetti, Gaetano, 1797-1848. Don Pasquale.
6. Elliott, William (William F.). Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder. English.
7. Elliott, William (William F.). Non Pasquale.
8. Finn, William. Romance in hard times.
9. Finn, William. Winter's tale.
10. Hamlisch, Marvin. Chorus line.
11. Holmes, Rupert. Mystery of Edwin Drood.
12. Holmes, Rupert. Twelfth night.
13. Jobriath. Misanthrope.
14. Killian, Scott. Lenny and the Heartbreakers.
15. Legrand, Michel, 1932-2019. Parapluies de Cherbourg. English.
16. Link, Peter. Comedy of errors.
17. MacDermot, Galt. Human comedy.
18. MacDermot, Galt. Two gentlemen of Verona.
19. Milton, James. Tempest.
20. Peaslee, Richard. King Henry IV. Part 1.
21. Peaslee, Richard. King Henry IV. Part 2.
22. Penn, William A. Midsummer night's dream.
23. Penn, William A. Pericles.
24. Puccini, Giacomo, 1858-1924. Bohème. English.
25. Rundgren, Todd. Up against it.
26. Shawn, Allen. Midsummer night's dream.
27. Sherman, Kim D. (Kim Daryl), 1954- Lenny and the Heartbreakers.
28. Shire, David. As you like it.
29. Steinman, Jim. More than you deserve.
30. Swados, Elizabeth. Runaways.
31. Sullivan, Arthur, 1842-1900. Pirates of Penzance.
32. Tunick, Jonathan. Timon of Athens.
33. Weill, Kurt, 1900-1950. Dreigroschenoper. English.
34. Weinstock, Richard. Composer Taming of the shrew.
35. Delacorte Theater (New York, N.Y.)
36. Public Theater (New York, N.Y.)
37. Vivian Beaumont Theater (New York, N.Y.)
38. New York Shakespeare Festival.

Research call number

1. JPB 04-03