Beggar's Holiday is amusical with a book and lyrics byJohn La Touche and music byDuke Ellington.

Beggar's Holiday
Beggar's Holiday presented by Opera Theater of Pittsburgh
Music	Duke Ellington
Lyrics	John La Touche
Book	John La Touche
Basis	The Beggar's Opera byJohn Gay
Productions	1946Broadway 2004Mill Valley, California 2012Paris, France

The project originated with black scenic designer Perry Watkins, who envisioned a jazz-driven adaptation of John Gay'sThe Beggar's Opera. Watkins hired John Latouche, who'd written lyrics for the cantata "Ballad for Americans" and "Cabin in the Sky," and teamed him with Ellington, still best known at the time as a band leader.^[1]

Ellington and Latouche updated the play's locale to a modern American city and turned Macheath into what Bowers calls "a pin-stripe-suited mobster, a singing, dancing Bugsy Siegel." The book itself mixed jazz and blues rhythms with more traditional musical theater, including comedy numbers written for Zero Mostel, making his Broadway debut as Peachum.^[1]

TheBroadway production, directed byNicholas Ray andchoreographed byValerie Bettis, opened on December 26, 1946 atThe Broadway Theatre, where it ran for 111 performances. The cast includedAlfred Drake,Zero Mostel, Bernice Parks, Jet MacDonald, Dorothy Johnson,Mildred Joanne Smith,Marie Bryant,Avon Long, William Dillard, Rollin Smith,Thomas Gomez, andHerbert Ross. The show included an interracial relationship resulting in nightlypicketing outside the theater.

No Broadwaycast album was recorded, but ademo tape was discovered and released, together with the score from theWest End musicalBet Your Life featuringJulie Wilson andSally Ann Howes, on anLP on the Blue Pear label.^[2]Lena Horne's recording of "Tomorrow Mountain," the show's first-act closer, was a hit.

The musical is set in a corrupt world inhabited by rakishmobsters and theirdouble crossing gangs, raffishmadams and their dissolutewhores,panhandlers andstreet people as they conduct their dirty business, ply their trade, and struggle to survive inbrothels,shanty towns, andprisons. The plot focuses on the exploits of MacHeath, a suave New York mobster, his three women, and their various trials and tribulations with the law.

• MacHeath, a ruthless mobster
• Jenny, MacHeath's lover
• Polly Peachum, MacHeath's wife
• Hamilton Peachum, Polly's father
• Mrs. Peachum, Polly's mother
• Lucy Lockit, daughter of the Chief of Police
• Careless Love
• The Cocoa Girl
• Chief of Police Lockit
• The Horn

Notes

• §: Lyrics based on poem by William Butler Yeats

Beggar's Holiday premiered on Broadway at the Broadway Theatre on December 26, 1946 and closed on March 29, 1947 after 111 performances. Directed by Nicholas Ray, the show starredAlfred Drake as MacHeath, Bernice Parks as Jenny, Jet MacDonald as Polly Peachum,Zero Mostel as Hamilton Peachum, Dorothy Johnson as Mrs. Peachum,Mildred Joanne Smith as Lucy Lockit,Avon Long as Careless Love,Marie Bryant as the Cocoa Girl, Rollin Smith as Chief of Police Lockit, and William Dillard as the Horn.

The show featured orchestrations by Billy Strayhorn, choreography by Valerie Bettis, production design by Oliver Smith, lighting design by Peggy Clark, and costume design by Walter Florell.^[3]

In 2004,Dale Wasserman, one of the musical's producers and the author ofMan of La Mancha, teamed with theMarin Theatre Company inMill Valley, California to create a revamped, updated, and radically rewritten version^[4] that toned down much of the original's social criticism and political humor. The substantially rearrangedjazz score included hints offunk,blues androck and roll. Overall, its mood was far lighter and more optimistic than that of the 1946 version. Although Wasserman had hopes of a Broadway staging, to date his plans have not materialized.

In 2012, French baritoneDavid Serero performed and produced a full revival production ofBeggar's Holiday by Ellington and Wasserman inNovember 2012 in Paris with an international cast including Emmy Award winnerJohn Altman,Charlie Glad,Gilles San Juan and directed byJames Marvel.

David Serero has also performed, arranged and produced the only cast album recording ofBeggar's Holiday.

• Internet Broadway Database listing