The Race to Urga

The Race to Urga
MusicLeonard Bernstein
LyricsStephen Sondheim
BookJohn Guare
BasisBertolt Brecht's play
The Exception and the Rule

The Race to Urga, later renamed A Pray by Blecht, is an unfinished musical adaptation of the Bertolt Brecht play The Exception and the Rule.

Collaboration on the production was initiated in 1968, with Jerome Robbins asking John Guare to write the adaptation. Leonard Bernstein was to compose the music, with Stephen Sondheim onboard to write the lyrics.[1] The new musical was announced to open at Lincoln Center in January 1969, but Robbins left the production during cast auditions, and the project folded.[2]

No cast album was produced, though a demo was recorded in 1968.[3] Jerome Robbins returned to the show, still incomplete, as director and choreographer of an April 1987 workshop production at Lincoln Center.[4][5]

  1. ^ A Pray by Blecht Sondheim Guide
  2. ^ Long, Robert. "Broadway, The Golden Years: Jerome Robbins And The Great Choreographer-Directors : 1940 To The Present" (2003). Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8264-1462-1, pp 133-134
  3. ^ Exception and The Rule Demo castalbums.org, retrieved December 9, 2009
  4. ^ Vaill, Amanda "Somewhere: The Life Of Jerome Robbins" (2006), p. 501 books.google.com, retrieved December 9, 2009
  5. ^ Leonard Bernsten Timeline, 1987 leonardbernstein.com, retrieved December 9, 2009