''Cyrano'' is a

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

with a book and lyrics by

Anthony Burgess John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993) who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer. Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his Utopian and dystopian fiction, dy ...

and music by Michael J. Lewis. Based on

Edmond Rostand Edmond Eugène Alexis Rostand (, , ; 1 April 1868 – 2 December 1918) was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism and is known best for his 1897 play ''Cyrano de Bergerac''. Rostand's romantic plays contrasted with th ...

's classic 1897 play of the same name, it focuses on a love triangle involving the large-nosed poetic

Cyrano de Bergerac Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac ( , ; 6 March 1619 – 28 July 1655) was a French novelist, playwright, epistolarian, and duelist. A bold and innovative author, his work was part of the libertine literature of the first half of the 17th ce ...

, his beautiful cousin Roxana, and his classically handsome but inarticulate friend Christian de Neuvillette who, unaware of Cyrano's unrequited passion for Roxana, imposes upon him to provide the romantic words he can use to woo her successfully in mid-17th century

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. In the early 1960s,

David Merrick David Merrick (born David Lee Margulois; November 27, 1911 – April 25, 2000) was an American theatrical producer who won a number of Tony Awards. Life and career Born David Lee Margulois to Jewish parents in St. Louis, Missouri, Merrick grad ...

had announced plans to produce a musical entitled ''Cyrano'' with a score by

Leslie Bricusse Leslie Bricusse OBE (; 29 January 1931 – 19 October 2021) was a British composer, lyricist, and playwright who worked on theatre musicals and wrote theme music for films. He was best known for writing the music and lyrics for the films '' D ...

and

Anthony Newley Anthony Newley (24 September 1931 – 14 April 1999) was an English actor, director, comedian, singer, and composer. A "latter-day British Al Jolson", he achieved widespread success in song, and on stage and screen. "One of Broadway's greatest ...

, but nothing came of the project. Burgess had translated the Rostand play for the Guthrie in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

, and director Michael Langham suggested he adapt it for a musical version. Burgess joined forces with

film composer A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

Lewis, replacing dialogue in his play with musical numbers, and the completed work was staged at the Guthrie, again with Langham at the helm. Following a 6 week tryout in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

's Colonial Theatre and five previews, the

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...

production, directed and

choreographed Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer creates choreographies thr ...

Michael Kidd Michael Kidd (August 12, 1915 – December 23, 2007) was an American film and stage choreographer, dancer and actor, whose career spanned five decades, and who staged some of the leading Broadway and film musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. Kidd, s ...

, opened on May 13, 1973 at the Palace Theatre, where it ran for 49 performances. The cast included

Christopher Plummer Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer (December 13, 1929 – February 5, 2021) was a Canadian actor. His career spanned seven decades, gaining him recognition for his performances in film, stage and television. His accolades included an Academy Aw ...

as Cyrano, Leigh Beery as Roxana, and

Mark Lamos Mark Lamos (born March 10, 1946) is an American theatre and opera director, producer and actor. Under his direction, Hartford Stage won the 1989 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre and he has been nominated for two other Tonys. For mor ...

as Christian, with

Tovah Feldshuh Terri Sue "Tovah" Feldshuh (born December 27, 1948) is an American actress, singer, and playwright. She has been a Broadway star for fifty years, earning four Tony Award nominations. She has also received two Emmy Award nominations for ''Holoca ...

making her Broadway debut in two small supporting roles. Plummer won the Tony for Best Actor in a Musical and

Drama Desk Award The Drama Desk Awards are among the most esteemed honors in New York theater, recognizing outstanding achievements across Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway productions within the same categories. The awards are considered a signific ...

for Outstanding Performance, and Beery was Tony-nominated for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. An original cast recording LP was released by A&M Records in 1973. An

original cast recording A cast recording is a recording of a stage musical that is intended to document the songs as they were performed in the show and experienced by the audience. An original cast recording or OCR, as the name implies, features the voices of the sho ...

CD was released by

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis after his acquisition of a gramophone manufacturer, The Decca Gramophone Company. It set up an American subsidiary under the Decca name, which bec ...

in 2005. In September 1994, an abridged version of the musical was staged at The Newport Arts Center in Orange County, California. Directed by Kent Johnson, and starring John Huntington as Cyrano and Deirdre McGill as Roxanne. One song, "You Have Made Me Love", released on a Broadway standards album sung by McGill.

Song list

;Act I *Cyrano's Nose - Cyrano *La France, La France - Company *Tell Her - Le Bret and Cyrano *From Now Till Forever - Cyrano & Company *Bergerac - Cyrano & Roxana *Pocapdedious - Cadets *No, Thank You - Cyrano *From Now Till Forever (Reprise) - Cyrano & Christian ;Act II *Roxana - Christian & Company *It's She and It's Me - Christian *You Have Made Me Love - Roxana *Thither, Thother, Thide of Thee - Cyrano *Pocapdedious (Reprise) - Le Bret & Cadets *Paris Cuisine - Cyrano, Le Bret & Cadets *Love Is Not Love - Roxana *Autumn Carol - Roxana & Nuns *I Never Loved You - Cyrano

Original Broadway cast

*Cyrano de Bergerac -

*Roxana - Leigh Beery *Christian de Neuvillette -

*Le Bret, Captain of the Gascons - James Blendick *Montfleury, A Romantic Tragedian - Patrick Hines *Count de Guiche, Guardian of Roxana - Louis Turenne *Ragueneau, A Baker and Poet - Arnold Soboloff *Viscount de Valvert - J. Kenneth Campbell *Roxana's Duenna, Sister Marthe - Anita Dangler *Pickpocket, Capucine Monk - Geoff Garland *Jodelet - Michael Goodwin *The Marquis in Red - Alexander Orfaly *Vendor -

*Child in the Bakery -

Paul Thompson Paul Thompson may refer to: Education *Paul Thompson (professor) (born 1951), British management professor at the University of Strathclyde *Paul B. Thompson (philosopher) (born 1951), American philosopher at Michigan State University *Paul H. Tho ...

Awards and nominations

Original Broadway production

References

*''Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops'' by

Ken Mandelbaum Ken Mandelbaum is an American columnist, critic, and author whose primary field of expertise is musical theatre. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Mandelbaum was introduced to Broadway musical theatre by his parents and grandparents at an e ...

, published by

St. Martin's Press St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan in New York City. It is headquartered in the Equitable Building (New York City), Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishe ...

(1991), pages 191-92 ()

External links

Internet Broadway Database listing''Cyrano''
at the Music Theatre International website {{Cyrano de Bergerac 1973 musicals Broadway musicals Musicals based on Cyrano de Bergerac (play) Tony Award–winning musicals Musicals set in Paris