Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - MacDermot: The Human Comedy

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera host, Keith Brown, writes:

Our American Thanksgiving holiday is actually a species of Northern hemispheric harvest home feast, and as you all know, home is where the heart is. With "home" in mind, as a lyric theater prelude to your Thanksgiving festivities, I proudly present The Human Comedy (1984), a particularly operatic piece of popular American musical theater, the music by Canadian lyric theater composer Terence Galt MacDermot (b.1928), and lyrics by Bill Dumaresq. Galt MacDermot gave the world Hair (1967), the hippie rock musical.

The Human Comedy is based on the novel by American author and playwright William Saroyan (1908-1981). Saroyan's story is set in a small town in California called Ithaca in 1942, in an era when people and goods traveled much more by rail than highway. We look in on the joys and sorrows of the Macauley family and other townspeople on "the home front" in World War Two. News arrives that one of Ithaca's soldier boys has been killed in action. Communications by telegraph figure importantly in the drama. The Human Comedy is a heartfelt musical tribute to hometown America, with all the nostalgia that clings to the concept. It was produced on Broadway by the Shubert Brothers Organization. Kilmarnock Records issued the original Broadway cast recording on two compact discs.