Harold Prince directed a cut-down and rearranged one-act version, with new orchestrations and a new book, for which Hugh Wheeler won a Tony Award. In 1973, however, it got a complete makeover, with Bernstein’s permission but not his participation. Candide had a few different performances in the 1950s and ’60s, and a new complete production in 1971 (with some new music by Bernstein), which opened in San Francisco and reached Los Angeles and Washington DC, but not New York.
For a contemporary opera, that would have been a phenomenal run – for a Broadway show, it was a flop, for which Hellman’s book received most of the blame.īernstein quickly moved on to other things, such as West Side Story and the music directorship of the New York Philharmonic. It closed less than three months later, after 73 performances. After a few out-of-town performances, the new work opened in New York City December 1, 1956. Thoroughly enthused about Candide, Bernstein persuaded Hellman to adapt it as a neo-Classical operetta, rather than the play with incidental music that she had envisioned. Bernstein wrote incidental music for it, and the following year The Lark opened on Broadway, where it ran for 229 performances. (This was also the period when West Side Story was gestating.) In 1954 Hellman switched her attention – also diverted by a subpoena from the House Un- American Activities Committee – to The Lark, her adaptation of a play by Jean Anouilh. Trouble in Tahiti premiered in 1951 and Wonderful Town opened in 1953. Lillian Hellman may have suggested collaborating on Candide to Bernstein as early as 1950, a time when the composer was much involved in music theater projects. The troubles and adventures of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide are nearly as varied and pitiable as those of Voltaire’s optimistic hero.
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