Set designer Jim Tendick puts final touches on the scenery for “Dear World” They even concoct a tea party scene in which they convict the evildoers drum up a scheme to accomplish their banishment and return the world to the happiness and light they dream it to be. The countess enlists the aid of other her fellow oddballs, who include a rag picker, flower girl, sewer man, military sergeant and a pair of young lovers, to fight back against what they saw then as today’s equivalent of the one-percenters. ![]() “The Madwoman of Chaillot,” in the original French known as “La Folle de Chaillot,” is the story of the eccentric but harmless Countess Aurelia, who learns that a cadre of corporate executives, bankers and other wielders of wealth and power are scheming to destroy the Chaillot section of Paris - and who knows what else - by drilling for the oil they believe exists in massive, wildly valuable pools beneath it. Now in its 88th season, VLT is opening a three-weekend run of the clash-between-good-and-evil musical, from March 24 to April 8, with Michael Watkins directing, assisted by Sharon Wetterling. Angela Lansbury played the role of Countess Aurelia, for which she won a Tony for best leading actress in a musical. When “Dear World” opened on Broadway in 1969, it made Herman the first composer-lyricist ever to have three shows running on Broadway simultaneously. The family lived in Jersey City, N.J., but they spent their summers running a camp in New York’s Berkshire Mountains, where their son first became involved in theatrical performance and never aspired to anything but show business.Ĭody Mendonca and Michelle Sellers share a scene in VLT’s “Dear World” and most of his 85 years have been spent in the entertainment industry, starting in his childhood with parents who loved it. Jerry Herman, for his part, is still with us. They also created the book for “Mame,” “Jabberwock,” and “Shangri-La.” Lawrence died in 2004. Lee was born in 1914 and lived until 1984, during which time he and Lawrence created some of the greatest stuff musicals have ever been made of, including their 1955 collaboration on “Inherit the Wind,” which became one of the most-produced plays ever. The Very Little Theatre is about to refresh all our memories with “Dear World,” its musical version of Giradoux’s classic, which features music and lyrics by Gerald “Jerry” Herman - famous for his “Hello Dolly” compositions - and the words in between, known as the “book,” by playwrights Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. ![]() ![]() Millions of students (including me) probably remember the title, “The Madwoman of Chaillot,” (pronounced SHY oh) from their school days, but very few (including me) probably remember what the allegorical play written in 1943 by French author Jean Giradoux is really about. (The cast of the Very Little Theatre Production of “Dear World” features, left to right above, Erikajane Johnston, Michelle Sellers and Annie Pusey.
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