KNICKERBOCKER HOLIDAY A musical play in 2 acts and 3 scenes. Book and Lyrics by Maxwell Anderson. Music by Kurt Weill. Suggested by "Father Knickerbocker's History" by Washington Irving Ethyl Barrymore Theatre, New York, 19 October 1938 (168 perfs) SUMMARY In New Amsterdam in 1647, Brom, a young man, falls in love with the Town Councillor's daughter, Tina. The Town Councillor, however, is furious and tries to have him hanged but the arrival of Peter Stuyvesant, the new Governor, saves Brom's neck. Stuyvesant reveals himself as a dictator, and Brom, protesting, is carted off to jail. Stuyvesant then announces that the country shall go to war, as a peaceful country is a stagnant one. This is stopped when it is pointed out that he had better change his ways if he is going to be remembered kindly in history and all ends happily with Brom and Tina getting married. STORY ACT I Washington Irving, the great American historian, is sitting idly at his desk in 1809 and starts to relate the story of the Dutch founding fathers of New York (then New Amsterdam) in 1647. Suddenly the Council is with us: Van Tienhoven, Van Rensselaer, Roosevelt, De Vries, Vanderbilt - all fat, self-important, corrupt (Hush-Hush) - and faintly ridiculous! They have a problem: the Governor is arriving by ship and they want a public hanging to impress him, but all the prisoners have jumped jail! The Council picks on young handsome Brom Bröck, back after an absence to see his sweetheart, Van Tienhoven's daughter Tina (It Never Was You) -he had to keep away because his aversion to taking orders from anyone always leads to trouble. Washington living, who acts like a narrator, agrees with Brom that this makes him the first fully-fledged American citizen (How Can You Tell an American?). Brom reminds Van Tienhoven of his lawbreaking, but that counts as "making accusations against the Council", which is a hanging matter, so he must be strung up. The crowd is furious, and threatens the Councillors, but Brom convinces the Councillors that the modern way to hang is by the stomach, and when the new Governor, Peter Stuyvesant, discovers him swinging by a rope around his waist, he is delighted at Brom's cheek and pardons him. He explains his idea of an idyllic existence for all, with him as absolute dictator, and enlists Van Tienhoven as his henchman in illicit arms and liquor trade with the Indians (The One Indespensable Man). Brom and Tina seek Stuyvesant's permission to marry, but are shattered to find that Van Tienhoven has promised her to Stuyvesant who, horror of horrors, has a silver leg! Stuyvesant tries to persuade her to marry him immediately, not to wait - "the days grow short when you reach September" (September Song) - the disheartened Brom complains loudly about the dictatorial Governor and gets marched off to jail for hanging later, while Stuyvesant exhorts everyone to hymn him (All Hail the Political Honeymoon). Act II Stuyvesant visits Brom in jail, listens to his thoughts and recommends him to write a book while Sitting In Jail. Tina, suddenly as rebellious as Brom and still determined to marry him, climbs in through the "escape hole" and, when the jailer tries to stop her, loses all her seven skirts in the attempt! She and Brom are just about to escape when her father arrives to take her away. Washington living introduces the last scene, Pausing that when you're on rock bottomThere's Nowhere To Go But Up Back on the Battery, the Army (that is, the Council plus several small boys) are parading
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