The Human Comedy (musical)

The Human Comedy
Original Cast Recording
Music	Galt MacDermot
Lyrics	William Dumaresq
Book	William Dumaresq
Basis	William Saroyan's The Human Comedy
Productions	1983 Off-Broadway 1984 Broadway 1997 York Theatre

The Human Comedy is a musical with a book and lyrics by William Dumaresq and music by Galt MacDermot.

William Saroyan's tale originated as a screenplay he had been hired to write and direct for MGM. When the studio objected to its length and an uncompromising Saroyan was pulled from the project, he rewrote the story as a novel with the same title that was published shortly prior to the film's release.

The Off-Broadway production, directed by Wilford Leach, opened on December 28, 1983 at Joseph Papp's Public Theater, where it ran for 79 performances.

The cast included Stephen Geoffreys as Homer, Bonnie Koloc as Kate, Don Kehr as Marcus, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Bess, Josh Blake as Ulysses, Rex Smith as Spangler, Gordon Connell as Grogan, Leata Galloway as Diana, Joseph Kolinski as Tobey, Caroline Peyton as Mary, and Laurie Franks as Miss Hicks.

Like Hair and A Chorus Line before it, The Human Comedy garnered reviews favorable enough to prompt Papp to transfer it a larger, uptown Broadway house. After twenty previews, with the Off-Broadway cast and creative team, it opened on April 5, 1984 at the Royale Theatre, where it ran for 13 performances.

Frank Rich's critique of the original production had been positive, but New York Times policy prohibited re-reviewing shows unless they were changed substantially, so his earlier comments were overshadowed by those damaging ones made more recently by Clive Barnes, among others. The general consensus was that The Human Comedy, with its intimate story staged in a semi-oratorio style with no scenery save for rear projections used to define each scene's locale, was not suited for a large venue with a conventional proscenium stage. Following Dude and Via Galactica, it was MacDermot's third critical and commercial failure, and proved to be his last attempt at a Broadway musical.