CELEBRATION (Music by Harvey Schmidt: Words by Tom Jones) Ambassador Theatre, Broadway 22 January, 1969 (109 perfs) It is New Year's Eve. A ritual is played out with masks and torches on a platform observed by Revellers who wait to see what the winter night will bring. A young orphan looking for his lost garden of beautiful peace becomes entangled with a host of bizarre characters including Mr. Rich, with whom he battles for the affection of a beautiful fallen Angel. In this age-old struggle between the powers of humanity and Mammon, love, as always, triumphs over the forces of power and greed. . STORY: The Narrator introduces a symbolic celebration of the theatre in the makeup of a New Year's Eve party given by the rich establishment. The party is a stage where Young Orphan seeks only the garden of the orphanage that Edgar Allan Rich, through his formula for money making, has torn down. The Narrator has become Potemkin, an opportunist with an eye for young men with bright ideas. Potemkin gets Orphan invited to Rich's party where he meets Angel, a soulful girl, yet compromising enough to avoid a grey existence. Rich is bored by everything at his own party: the masked antics of his Revellers-all the artificial things that have made him rich. Sensing an opening, Potemkin hatches a plot whereby Orphan and Angel fall in love to prey upon the romanticism of Rich. Orphan can then trade Angel for the garden. The plan works to perfection. But the rejuvenated Rich, playing the role of Adam to Angel's Eve, seeks to renege on his promise to Orphan and keep the garden. Orphan claims the garden belongs to him, but Rich orders Potemkin to throw him out. However Orphan hides during the ensuing smoke screen of pageantry, following which he also emerges as Adam to do hand-to-hand combat with Rich's ageing portrayal. It's the stroke of 12 and Rich's time has run out. He dies in Orphan's arms as Potemkin, as Father Time, counts him out. Returning to the Narrator, he proclaims that Orphan and Angel must now cast aside their familiar and winning roles to strive bravely for the chance at reality and change for which they have fought and won. MUSICAL NUMBERS: 1. The Beautician Ballet 2. Bored 3. Celebration 4. Fifty Million Years Ago 5. I'm Glad to See You've Got What You Want 6. It's You Who Makes Me Young 7. Love Song ... .. To the Garden 8. My Garden 9. Not My Problem 10. Orphan in the Storm 11. Saturnalia 12. Somebody 13. Survive 14. Under the Tree 15. Where Did It Go? 16. Winter and Summer INSTRUMENTATION: Piano I, II, guitar*, bass*, harp*, electric piano*, percussion A, B, C, (or solo percussion). CASTING: Principals: 3 Male, 1 Female. The Revellers - 6 Male, 6 Female.
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