I've always felt Lucy Maude Montgomery's book "Anne of Green Gables" would make a really terrific family musical. Perhaps a song about, say, ice cream...

Well the wait is over because TheatreworksUSA is producing ANNE OF GREEN GABLES at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York.

Written by Gretchen Cryer and Nancy Ford (writers of the American Girl Revue shows) and directed by Tyler Marchant, the show stars Piper Goodeve as Anne.

Okay, okay, I know ANNE OF GREEN GABLES exists already as a musical, written by Don Harron and Norman Campbell, with lyrics by Elaine Campbell and Mavor Moore.

According to this post in Wikipedia:

The Confederation Centre of the Arts' annual "Charlottetown Festival" headlines Canada's longest-running mainstage musical production Anne of Green Gables -- The Musical. This show having run every summer since the Centre opened in 1964 has played to over 2 million viewers. Anne of Green Gables -- The Musical was composed by Canadian theatrical legends Don Harron and Norman Campbell, with lyrics by Elaine Campbell and Mavor Moore. The production has played to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and has also toured across Canada, the United States, Europe and Japan and has played to numerous distinguished figures in audiences every season.

ANNE OF GREEN GABLES is like a national treasure in Canada. Not a season goes by without some theatre or school putting on a production. Even my daughter's school does a scene from it every year! You're practically issued the sheet music along with your birth certificate.

So it was a little weird to read about the TheatreworksUSA production because it sounds like this is the first time the book has been made into a musical. It would be like suddenly seeing a new production of LES MIZ -- "Les Miserables -- The Musical! Finally Victor Hugo's epic novel set to music!"

I know it's not the first time public domain material has been duplicated, it happens a lot. For example, THE WILD PARTY (and I'm still wondering how the heck they both happened at the same time!) and TOM JONES. But the Harron/Campbell/Campbell/Moore version of ANNE OF GREEN GABLES has been around for a while, so it kind of feels "established".

Having said all that I'd love to see the Cryer/Ford version, to see how it is different. Did they musicalize the same stuff? Does it have the same tone? What is the American perspective? Actually I would have loved to have seen both versions of THE WILD PARTY. I had tickets to the one starring Mandy Patinkin, but it closed before I could go!

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