Search - MAN IN THE MOON / O.B.C. :: Man In The Moon / O.B.C.

Digitally remastered and expanded edition. The Broadway musical Man In The Moon was a collaboration between famed puppeteers Bil and Cora Baird and the award winning Broadway writing team of lyricist Sheldon Harnick and composer Jerry Bock. The production opened at New York's Biltmore Theatre on April 11th 1963 and ran for 22 performances. Two weeks later, Harnick and Bock's critically acclaimed musical She Loves Me opened on Broadway and although Man In The Moon would not achieve the same enduring legacy as She Loves Me, the charismatic children's musical still proved a critical success and contained five original and memorable songs by Harnick and Bock. Man In The Moon was conceived by Bil Baird and featured a book by Arthur Burns. The story centered around the young protagonist Jerry who is beamed to the moon to act as an "Earth Ambassador" and state a case in the defence of our planet to the 'Man in the Moon'. Jerry is unexpectedly accompanied on his journey by jewel thief Flicker and his gang of henchmen. The New York Times found the Man In The Moon to be like a "box of holiday bon-bons" and praised Bock and Harnick's "snappy score". The limited theatre run was preceded by an Original Cast Album on Golden Records featuring Bil and Cora Baird, Franz Fazakas, Frank Sullivan, Gerald Freedman and session singers Rose Marie Jun and Eric Carlson. The album featured the dialogue scenes interspersed with the original songs by Bock and Harnick. It is coupled here with the unreleased original demos for the show performed by composers Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock.