
Candide (Original)
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Leonard Bernstein, Lillian Hellman, and Richard Wilbur’s original 1956 Broadway production of 'Candide' stands as an epochal, landmark triumph of American musical craftsmanship, celebrated for possessing one of the most soaring, operatic scores in theatrical history. Adapting Voltaire’s classic 1759 satirical novella, the sweeping plot tracks a naive young optimist who travels across a brutal world of wars, natural disasters, and inquisitions, stubbornly maintaining his tutor's philosophy that everything is for the best in "the best of all possible worlds." Opening at the Martin Beck Theatre under the direction of Tyrone Guthrie, the premiere starred Robert Rounseville and Barbara Cook.

