Category Archives: Theatre

THE FLAMINGO KID

The Flamingo Kid opened May 24, 2019, at Hartford Stage in Hartford, Connecticut. Book and Lyrics by Robert L. Freedman. Music by Scott Frankel. Directed by Darko Tresnjak. Choreographed by Denis Jones. Based on the screenplay by Neal Marshall and Garry Marshall.

The Plot: In the summer of ’63, against the wishes of his father, Brooklyn teenager Jeffrey Winnick leaves behind his blue-collar roots for an exciting job working as a cabana boy at the colorful El Flamingo — a posh private club on Long Island. There, Jeffrey meets Karla, a forward-thinking young woman from California. The music, the romance, the beach are magical — until tensions grow between father and son when a slick club member takes Jeffrey under his wing.


A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER

A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, the Best Musical Tony Winner of 2014, opened on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre on November 17, 2013.  Book by Robert L. Freedman, Music by Steven Lutvak, Lyrics by Robert L. Freedman & Steven Lutvak. Directed by Darko Tresnjak.  Set in Edwardian London, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder traces the brilliant trajectory of Monty Navarro (played by Bryce Pinkham)—charmer, seducer and avenger—on his quest for recognition and family fortune.  Jefferson Mays plays all eight eccentric members of the wealthy and powerful D’Ysquith family who go on to their great rewards in the course of the story.


DISNEY’S CAMP ROCK: THE MUSICAL

An adaption for the stage of the Disney Channel films Camp Rock and Camp Rock 2, written in collaboration with Faye Greenberg and David Lawrence (High School Musical) for Disney Theatricals.


THE BEAST OF BROADWAY

Robert L. Freedman and Faye Greenberg have written a new one-man play, The Beast of Broadway: The Life and Times of David Merrick, (pictured at left) about the legendary producer. The play premieres on March 4, 2010, at TheatreZone in Naples Florida, in a production starring David Garrison, directed by Mark Danni, and produced by Danni and Larry Goodsight. For more information click here. To read a newspaper article about the production, click here.


Broadway Sings the Music of Jule Styne

Broadway Sings the Music of Jule Styne was a musical-variety special for Great Performances on PBS. Robert was chosen personally by Jule Styne to write the script, and enjoyed a collaboration with producers Fritz Holt and Barry Brown until Fritz, who was to direct, became too ill to continue. Legendary theatre director Joe Layton was brought in at the eleventh hour, and the special went on to win a couple of Emmys (for Musical Direction and Arrangements).

Jule Styne himself appeared in the special, along with his frequent collaborators Sammy Cahn, Arthur Laurents, and Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Robert spent many unforgettable hours interviewing these musical theatre legends who had inspired his own aspirations in the field.


GRAND DUCHY

Loosely inspired by Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper, Grand Duchy is a 30’s-style screwball comedy that tells the story of a Prince and a Rebel who switch places and turn everything upside down in the tiniest country in Europe.

With book and lyrics by Robert L. Freedman and music by John Bayless, Grand Duchy began as a graduate thesis project at NYU.  Ira Weitzman, then the director of Musical Theatre development for off-Broadway’s Playwrights Horizons, saw the first act of Grand Duchy and offered Robert and John a staged reading when the show was completed.


MISS SPECTACULAR

In 1999, Broadway composer Jerry Herman (Hello, Dolly!, Mame, La Cage Aux Folles) asked Robert to write the book for his new musical, Miss Spectacular.  In 2002 Jerry Herman released a recording of the score of Miss Spectacular, as a concept album.  The songs are performed by Christine Baranski, Michael Feinstein, Davis Gaines, Debbie Gravitte, Steve Lawrence, Karen Morrow and Faith Prince.


CAMPAIGN OF THE CENTURY

Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak’s musical won the 2006 California Musical Theatre Award from Beverly Hills Theatre Guild and was presented in a staged reading on June 4, 2006, in Beverly Hills. Featured in the cast were John Rubinstein, Kaitlin Hopkins, Josh Radnor, Jean Louisa Kelly, Stan Chandler, Corinne Kason, Michael Kostroff, Ron Orbach, Tregoney Shepherd and Steve Vinovich. Based on the book by Greg Mitchell, Campaign of the Century centers on the comic chicanery, media manipulation, and outrageous shenanigans surrounding Upton Sinclair’s race for Governor of California in 1934.