Red Bull Theater's benefit concert of Maltby & Shire's THE COUNTRY WIFE will premiere in person at 7:30 PM on December 11, 2023 at the Peter Norton Symphony Space. Get full details here.
The Country Wife is pretty much a love letter to the astonishing city of New Orleans. It’s hard to explain where ideas for musicals come from, but for years I’ve been intrigued by the thought of doing an American version of a Restoration comedy, and the notion of setting it in pre-Civil War New Orleans pulled the whole project together. New Orleans in 1840 was the most cosmopolitan, diverse city in American history. The population was a bouillabaisse of French colonials, Southern aristocrats, Free Men and Women of Color, French Arcadians – the Cajuns -- from Canada, Creoles of all kinds, educated blacks escaping from the Haitian revolution, and American adventurers from everywhere. The Mississippi had just been opened, and all commerce with America’s heartland came through New Orleans, which was suddenly the third richest city in America. Music was everywhere. Chicago and New York each had an opera house; New Orleans had three. Businessmen were making fortunes and acquiring trophy wives who they then neglected. Morals were high, covering a deep base of licentiousness.
A second-rate actor/manager from England decides to open a theater, and casts his first play with locals. Correctly assessing the low level of American taste, the play he chooses is the raunchiest of all the restoration comedies, The Country Wife, written by William Wycherley.
He is not prepared for the American response to this play.
So come join us. It’s opening night, the first performance of any play in this theatre.
It may well be the last.
RICHARD MALTBY, JR. - BROADWAY: Conceived and directed two Tony Award winning musicals: Ain't Misbehavin' (1978) (also Tony Award for Best Director) and Fosse (1999, also Tony nomination, Best Director). Director/lyricist: Baby (1983, Tony nominations, Best Score, Best Director; director/co-lyricist: Song & Dance (1986, Tony nominations, Best Score, Best Director); co lyricist: Miss Saigon (London 1990 and New York 1991, Evening Standard Award, Best Musical; Tony nominations, Best Musical, Best Score); lyricist: Big (1996 and London 2019, Tony nominations, Best Musical, Best Score); director: Ring of Fire, (2006); co-lyricist: The Pirate Queen (2007); director: The Story of My Life (2009). OFF-BROADWAY: director/lyricist Starting Here, Starting Now (1977); Closer Than Ever, (1989 and 2013, Outer Critics Circle Award: Best Revival of a Musical). REGIONAL: Lyricist: Take Flight (London 2010; Princeton 2012); book and lyrics, Waterfall (Pasadena and Seattle 2015; Bangkok, 2023); FILM: screenplay, Miss Potter, (2007, Christopher Award, Best Screenplay). Five children: Nicholas, David, Jordan, Emily and Charlotte.
Red Bull Theater's benefit concert of Maltby & Shire's THE COUNTRY WIFE will premiere in person at 7:30 PM on December 11, 2023 at the Peter Norton Symphony Space. Get full details here.
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