Johnny Tremain

[ceebeegee]

I've been rereading Johnny Tremain lately, an old, old favorite. So beautifully written--absolutely not written down to children, there's so much subtlety and understatement in the tone. "'I'm too young to be lascivious.'" And "So the old man was after his for his pride again, was he?" And "everything seemed to groan 'this is the end, this is the end.'"

It occurred to me last night that this would be a fantastic subject for a musical--I wonder if anyone's ever thought of it? I can think of so many musical moments--the opening scene in the silversmith's shop, Johnny's "dark night of the soul" after his injury, the speech that Otis--or is it Sam Adams?--makes with its repeated refrain "A man can stand up," and that beautiful, poignant ending "Grandsire--Grandsire..." And just think of all those wonderful old colonial instruments you could use for the orchestration--drums, fife, etc. I can't believe no one's ever adapted this!

Comments

[dry-2olives.livejournal.com]

It'd be very surprised if nobody in the past 65 years has tried adapting Johnny Tremain for the musical stage. Of course, writing it and getting a high-profile production that might make it as far as Broadway are two entirely different things. Most likely there have been adaptations written as theatre for young audiences.

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

I just checked--only the Disney adaptation in the '50s which wasn't really a mausical although it did have 1-2 songs.

[neoscribe.livejournal.com]

..but Toby Tyler looks like much more fun...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toby_Tyler,_or_Ten_Weeks_with_a_Circus