''The Grand Tour'' 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 by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble and music and lyrics by

Jerry Herman Gerald Sheldon Herman (July 10, 1931December 26, 2019) was an American composer and lyricist, known for his work in Broadway theatre. One of the most commercially successful Broadway songwriters of his time, Herman was the composer and lyricist ...

. Based on

S. N. Behrman Samuel Nathaniel Behrman (; June 9, 1893 – September 9, 1973) was an American playwright, screenwriter, biographer, and longtime writer for ''The New Yorker''. His son is the composer David Behrman. Biography Early years Behrman's parents, Z ...

's adaptation of the 1944 play ''Jakobowsky und der Oberst'' (''Jacobowsky and the Colonel'') by

Franz Werfel Franz Viktor Werfel (; 10 September 1890 – 26 August 1945) was an Austrian-Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet whose career spanned World War I, the Interwar period, and World War II. He is primarily known as the author of '' The Forty ...

, the story concerns an unlikely pair. S.L. Jacobowsky, a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and Human self-reflection, reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the wor ...

, has purchased a car he cannot drive. Stjerbinsky, an

aristocrat The aristocracy (''from Greek'' ''ἀριστοκρατία'' ''aristokratía'', "rule of the best"; ''Latin: aristocratia'') is historically associated with a "hereditary" or a "ruling" social class. In many states, the aristocracy included the ...

ic,

anti-Semitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

, knows how to drive but has no car. When the two men meet at a

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 ...

hotel, they agree to join forces in order to escape the approaching

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

. Together with the Colonel's girlfriend, Marianne, they experience many adventures while on the road, but trouble ensues when Jacobowsky falls in love with the young girl.

Productions

''The Grand Tour'' premiered in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

for a tryout engagement in November–December, 1978. The San Francisco reviews "were of the 'good potential but needs work' " type. Joel Grey noted "There were big changes out there in terms of the shape of the show... In terms of material, there weren't that many. One of my songs was cut, and Jerry Herman wrote a new one for me and for Florence Lacey..." Also,

Tommy Tune Thomas James Tune (born February 28, 1939) is an American actor, dancer, singer, theatre director, producer, and choreographer. Over the course of his career, he has won ten Tony Awards, the National Medal of Arts, and a star on the Hollywood Wal ...

went to California to work on the show. The musical premiered on

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 ...

at the Palace Theatre on January 11, 1979 and closed on March 4, 1979 after 61 performances and seventeen previews. Directed by Gerald Freedman 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 ...

by Donald Saddler, the cast included

Joel Grey Joel Grey (born Joel David Katz; April 11, 1932) is an American actor, singer, dancer, photographer, and theatre director. He is best known for portraying the Master of Ceremonies in the musical ''Cabaret (musical), Cabaret'' on Broadway theatre, ...

Ron Holgate Ronald Holgate (born May 26, 1937, Aberdeen, South Dakota) is an American actor and opera singer. He won the Tony Award for Best Supporting Actor as Richard Henry Lee in the original Broadway production of ''1776'', a role he reprised in 1972 fo ...

, and Florence Lacey."''The Grand Tour'' Broadway"
Playbill, accessed December 22, 2016 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 ...

was released by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

Analysis

Along with ''

Milk and Honey Milk and Honey may refer to: Music * The Milk and Honey Band, an English band * Milk and Honey (album), ''Milk and Honey'' (album), a 1984 album by John Lennon and Yoko Ono * Milk & Honey (Crowder album), ''Milk & Honey'' (Crowder album), 2021 * M ...

'', ''The Grand Tour'' is a largely forgotten piece in

's canon. It probably didn't help matters that it opened in the same season as ''

Sweeney Todd Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as the villain of the penny dreadful serial '' The String of Pearls'' (1846–1847). The original tale became a feature of 19th-century melodrama and London legend. A barber from Fleet St ...

'', ''

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas ''The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas'' is a musical with a book by Texas author Larry L. King and Peter Masterson and music and lyrics by Carol Hall. It is based on a story by King that was inspired by the real-life Chicken Ranch in La Grang ...

'', and ''

They're Playing Our Song ''They're Playing Our Song'' is a musical with a book by Neil Simon, lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager, and music by Marvin Hamlisch. In a story based on the real-life relationship of Hamlisch and Sager, a wisecracking composer finds a new, offbeat l ...

''. It did, however, manage to get generally positive reviews from ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' and ''

The New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates three online sites: NYPost. ...

''. Of Herman's three "flops" (''

Dear World ''Dear World'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman and book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. With its opening, Herman became the first composer-lyricist in history to have three productions running simultaneously on Bro ...

'', ''

Mack and Mabel ''Mack & Mabel'' is a musical with a book by Michael Stewart and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. The plot involves the tumultuous romantic relationship between Hollywood director Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand (transformed from an artist's mo ...

'', and ''The Grand Tour''), it had the shortest run on Broadway (''

'' outran it by five). In an article for the New York Public Library, Diana Bertolini speculated: "The star performance, was by all accounts one of the most special anyone had ever seen. And Herman's score is terrific... This show didn't really have anything wrong with it! Good book, good score, good cast… all I can imagine is that it was in the wrong place at the wrong time....Herman said in interviews that he thought The Grand Tour had actually suffered from Grey's strong performance, because it turned Jacobowsky into the star part and The Colonel a supporting one, a change from Berman's play, in which the roles had been equal."

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 ...

wrote that "Herman's least admired and performed flop score is nonetheless filled with nice things...'The Grand Tour' was moderately pleasant, and more enjoyable on disc." In a review of a 2005 regional production at the Colony Theater in Burbank, California, Steve Oxman of ''Variety'' wrote: "it’s not really a mystery why this show doesn’t work, although it’s a bit baffling that anyone thought a minor adjustment would fix it. Herman... delivers a number of tunes here that linger pleasurably in the ear. But the tone of his work does battle with the story itself, in which clever Jewish refugee S.L. Jacobowsky... bombastic Polish Colonel Stjerbinsky... and his French girlfriend Marianne... try to stay one step ahead of the Nazis in occupied France.Oxman, Steve
"Review: ‘The Grand Tour’"
''Variety'', November 7, 2005

Synopsis

;Act I S. L. Jacobowsky relates that his incurable

optimism Optimism is the Attitude (psychology), attitude or mindset of expecting events to lead to particularly positive, favorable, desirable, and hopeful outcomes. A common idiom used to illustrate optimism versus pessimism is Is the glass half empty ...

has guided him well through a life of flight from one country to another in search of his place in the world ("I'll Be Here Tomorrow"). We are in Paris in the spring of 1940. The

Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

are advancing rapidly, and Jacobowsky calmly waits outside a hotel for a man with a car for sale, by which he hopes to leave the capital. We meet two other hotel guests, a stiff-necked Polish aristocrat, Colonel Tadeusz Boleslav Stjerbinsky and his orderly, Szabuniewicz. The Colonel has a list of undercover agents in occupied Poland and is to meet a man with a flower in his lapel in the

café A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually called ''nargi ...

of Papa Clairon in the French coastal village of St. Nazaire. The man will arrange passage for him to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

so he can turn the papers over to the Polish government in exile. Jacobowsky buys the car but as he cannot drive and has overheard the Colonel's plans, proposes that he and the Colonel travel together. The Colonel will have no part of it, but Jacobowsky finally persuades him to do it for Poland ("For Poland"), and their Grand Tour begins. In St. Cyrille the two meet Marianne, a lovely young French woman to whom the Colonel has promised to return. Mme Vauclain tries to persuade Marianne to leave St. Cyrille before the Germans come, but she will do nothing of the kind ("I Belong Here"). Late that night the car bearing Jacobowsky, the Colonel, and Szabuniewicz arrives outside Marianne's house, gives a final gasp, and expires. The Colonel wakens Marianne with music ("Marianne"), and although she is reluctant to leave St. Cyrille, Jacobowsky persuades Marianne that the best way to fight for her home is by leaving and remaining free. As she sews the Colonel's papers into her hat for safekeeping, they hurry to catch a local train heading west ("We're Almost There"). The train is halted by a bombed-out rail section and the group moves on to its next mode of transport, the caravan of the traveling Carnival Manzoni. Jacobowsky and Marianne talk, and we see that he is slowly falling in love with her. When the Carnival stops, Jacobowsky sets up a picnic at the side of the road and entertains Marianne while the Colonel glowers jealously in the background ("More and More / Less and Less"). The furious Colonel challenges Jacobowsky to a duel, and they are only stopped from shooting each other by the sudden arrival of an SS Captain. To save themselves, the four masquerade as performers in the Carnival: The Colonel and Szabuniewicz as two

clown A clown is a person who performs physical comedy and arts in an Improvisational theatre#Comedy, open-ended fashion, typically while wearing distinct cosmetics, makeup or costume, costuming and reversing social norm, folkway-norms. The art of ...

s, Jacobowsky as the human cannonball, and Marianne as his assistant ("One Extraordinary Thing"). Jacobowsky is about to climb into the cannon when the Colonel inadvertently gives the game away and they are forced to fire the cannon and make their escape under cover of its smoke and confusion. They meet several hours later. Jacobowsky has arranged for a truck hauling nets to take them to the coast, but he will not go. It is time for him to head south to

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

and safety. But in his rush the Colonel has left the papers behind. Moments too late, Jacobowsky finds the papers and inspired by duty and the thought of seeing Marianne once more, he starts off to find her and the Colonel in St. Nazaire. ;Act II Jacobowsky, on his way to St. Nazaire aboard a small barge, reflects on the one person who has never been a part of his life ("Mrs. S. L. Jacobowsky"). When he arrives at Papa Clairon's café, his friends have not yet shown up. But a wedding is about to take place, and he momentarily mistakes the boutonniered

bride A bride is a woman who is about to be married or who is a newlywed. When marrying, if the bride's future spouse is a man, he is usually referred to as the ''bridegroom'' or just ''groom''. In Western culture, a bride may be attended by a maid, ...

's father for the underground contact with the flower in his lapel. The guests are overjoyed to learn that Jacobowsky's father taught biblical history and that he can perform the wedding ("Wedding Conversation / Mazeltov"). As the ceremony is concluded, the guests barely have time to scramble to safety as the Nazis enter. A man who remains behind is revealed to the Nazis as a

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

agent, but in fact, he is the Colonel's contact. Realizing that the café is no longer safe, he sends a waitress to intercept the Colonel and tell him the meeting place has been changed to 23 Rue Mace, to the relief of Jacobowsky. En route to the café and now very much aware of the missing papers, Marianne, the Colonel, and Szabuniewicz agonize over their loss. The Colonel realizes how much like Jacobowsky he is — running, hunted, and in fear of his life ("I Think, I Think"). Arriving on a bicycle the waitress tells them of the new meeting place. At 23 Rue Mace, the convent of the Sisters of Charity, the Germans have come to billet their troops in spite of Mother Madeleine's outrage. The foursome arrive for their meeting and over-power the Germans. The Colonel is forced to kill the SS Captain, and Jacobowsky throws the other soldiers into the coal cellar and gives the Colonel the secret papers. By now the last barriers are down between the two men, and we see that Jacobowsky and the Colonel are friends at last ("You I Like"). Later that night on the wharf outside St. Nazaire they wait for the boat that will take them to England, but there will be room only for two of the four. Szabuniewicz will not go but will return to Poland and fight the Nazis there. Jacobowsky, though he knows that there is no place for him in France, insists that Marianne leave with the Colonel. Jacobowsky's flight will continue, but this time with a difference; if he has found a place in the heart of a Marianne, then what can stop him from finding his place in the world? His Grand Tour is just beginning ("I'll Be Here Tomorrow (Reprise)").

Songs

;Act I * I'll Be Here Tomorrow - S. L. Jacobowsky * For Poland - Colonel Tadeusz Boleslav Stjerbinsky, Mme. Bouffier and Parisians * I Belong Here - Marianne * Marianne - Colonel Tadeusz Boleslav Stjerbinsky * We're Almost There - Marianne, Szabuniewicz, S. L. Jacobowsky, Colonel Tadeusz Boleslav Stjerbinsky, Mme. Marville, Conductor and Passengers * Marianne (Reprise) - S. L. Jacobowsky * More and More/ Less and Less - Marianne and Colonel Tadeusz Boleslav Stjerbinsky * One Extraordinary Thing - S. L. Jacobowsky, Marianne, Colonel Tadeusz Boleslav Stjerbinsky, Szabuniewicz and Carnival Performers * One Extraordinary Thing (Reprise) - S. L. Jacobowsky ;Act II * Mrs. S.L. Jacobowsky - S. L. Jacobowsky * Wedding Conversation - S. L. Jacobowsky and Bride's Father * Mazeltov - Bride's Father and Wedding Guests * I Think, I Think - Colonel Tadeusz Boleslav Stjerbinsky * For Poland (Reprise) - Marianne, Mother Madeleine and Sisters of Charity * You I Like - Colonel Tadeusz Boleslav Stjerbinsky and S. L. Jacobowsky * I Belong Here (Reprise) - Marianne * I'll Be Here Tomorrow (Reprise) - S. L. Jacobowsky

Cast

Awards and nominations

Source: ''Playbill'' * 1979 Nominee -

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...

for Best Original Score * 1979 Nominee - Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical (Grey) * 1979 Nominee - Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Holgate) * 1979 Nominee -

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 Actor in a Musical (Grey)

References

External links

*
Guide to Musical TheatreNew York Public Library Blog on The Grand Tour''The Grand Tour''
at

Masterworks Broadway Masterworks Broadway is a record label created by the consolidation of Sony Music Entertainment's Broadway theatre music divisions, Columbia Broadway Masterworks and RCA Victor Records' Broadway series. Masterworks Broadway's recent releases incl ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grand Tour, The 1979 musicals Broadway musicals Musicals by Jerry Herman Musicals by Michael Stewart (playwright) Musicals based on plays Musicals set in Paris Musicals set in France Musicals about World War II