Donnybrook!
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Donnybrook! is a musical from 1961, with music and lyrics by Johnny Burke and book by Robert E. McEnroe. It is based on the film The Quiet Man. It had 68 performances at Broadway's 46th Street Theatre, opening on May 18, 1961 and closing on July 15, 1961. Leading players Art Lund and Joan Fagan played the roles created by John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara in the film. Broadway favorites Eddie Foy Jr. and Susan Johnson played a comic secondary couple.
As in the film, the plot concerns the efforts of an Irish-American boxer, who has killed a man in the ring and vowed never to raise a hand again to any man, to woo a tempestuous Irish village colleen who wants a man who will stand up and fight for her. The above-average score included the ballads "He Makes Me Feel I'm Lovely" and "I Have My Own Way" for Fagan and Lund, respectively, and the droll "I Wouldn't Bet a Penny" and "Delightful Is the Word" for the secondary couple, as well as a lively title song and the assertive"Says I," which framed the show at the top of the first act and the end of the second. Donnybrook! was one of many pleasant and perfectly professional musicals of its time that failed, not because there was anything much wrong with it, but simply because the competition during the "golden age" of Broadway musicals was too fierce.
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[edit] References
- Internet Broadway Database entry for Donnybrook!
- The Guide to Musical Theatre page for Donnybrook! (includes spoilers)
