Historic Photo Gallery: 1947 to 1954
1947
Heartsong, an early piece by Arthur Laurents, had its pre-Broadway
tryout at the Walnut in March 1947. From the beginning the production had
problems, including the original leading lady quitting after only three days
of rehearsal, the original leading man being replaced and then the
replacement quitting, the original director being fired, and the script
receiving extensive rewrites. When the show finally opened in Philadelphia,
it was a flop and never made it to New York. Laurents' future career did
not suffer however, as he went on to write the libretto for such hit shows as
Gypsy and
West Side Story.
(Photograph courtesy of the Theatre Collection, Free Library of Philadelphia.)
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