The run closed December 26, 1976
- Opened
- December 20, 1976
- Closed
- December 26, 1976
- Performances
- 8
- Previews
- —
- Theatre
- St. James Theatre
Of the 589 productions we hold that opened in the 1970s and record a performance count, this is the 457th longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.
Who was in it26 named
Helena Andreyko
Daniel Ben Zali
David Brummel
Doug Carfrae
Dennis Daniels
Dawn Herbert
Marc Jordan
Dana Kyle
Wayne Mattson
Jason Mcauliffe
William Mcclary
Paul Michael
Carolann Page
Joe Ponazecki
Susan Elizabeth Scott
Denny Shearer
Melanie Vaughan
Laura Waterbury
8 of these 26 names have a person record behind them and link to one. The other 18 are set from the identifier in the cast list, which is a slug of the name — so hyphens and full stops are lost and a few come out wrong. We hold nothing else about them. Nobody here is matched to a character: the cast list records who was in the company and not what they played.
Creative team
- Director
- George Abbott
- Choreographer
- Patricia Birch
- Orchestrations
- by Hershy Kay
A producer is one string on this record, however many people or companies it names. Directors and choreographers are held both as text and as identifiers; where an identifier exists the name links to a page.
Around this production
Director George Abbott was 89 years old when he staged this show, one of his final Broadway productions. Richard Adler, who had triumphed with The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees in the 1950s, never had another Broadway hit.
The show’s opening was dazzling. The entire cast marched across the stage in a colorful, Elizabethan parade, holding up banners that identified the artistic team. It was like the opening credits of some playful movie. The Abbott Touch Thomas Hischak 2023 Bloomsbury Publishing, p. 254
- "But his scores for the short-lived Kwamina (1961) and Music Is (1976) were richly melodic and it’s unfortunate they never found the acclaim they deserved." Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals the Dan Dietz, p. 394
- The unfortunate Music Is, Adler’s last show for Broadway and one of many musicalizations of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (along with Your Own Thing, Love for Love, and Play On!, among others), was smacked down by New York critics, despite a highly enjoyable score and a bright, energetic young cast featuring such rising… Broadway Musicals the 101 Greatest Shows of All Time Bloom Ken 1949 Vlastnik Fra, p. 261
- Broadway's most recent musicals, going back almost two years, included such spectacularly depressing offerings as Home Sweet Homer, Pacific Overtures, Rockabye Hamlet, Rex, So Long, 174th Street, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Something's Afoot, and Music Is. More Opening Nights On Broadway A Critical Quotebook of Compiled By Steven Suski, p. 482
- Broadway’s most recent musicals, going back almost two years, included such spectacularly depressing offerings as Home Sweet Homer, Pacific Overtures, Rockabye Hamlet, Rex, So Long, 174th Street, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Something's Afoot, and Music Is. More Opening Nights On Broadway Steven Suskin, p. 481
- it’s unfortunate they never found the acclaim they deserved. The Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals Dan Dietz Hardcover 2014 Rowman Lit, p. 396
Passages naming this production, found by keyword across 178 books. Where it turns up in the literature, not curated notes about it.
What this page does not know
- No photograph of this staging. 48 of 13,459 productions hold one.
- No character names. We can say who was in the company and not who they played.
- No recording is held for Music Is at all.
- Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.