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Stephen Cole
librettist-lyicist
The Night of the Hunter is now a musical, with music by veteran Claibe Richardson (The Grass Harp), and book and lyrics by newcomer Stephen Cole. Plans are for it to be the new Goodman Theater's inaugural offering next fall.
The show was first done in a workshop at the Vineyard, after which director Robert Falls (Death of a Salesman) held another workout at the Goodman, and found the musical to be all good and no evil.
As Adapters are prone to say, the work is based more on the novel (by David Grubb) than the film 9helmed by Charles Laughton in 1955 and starring Robert Mitchum as a murderer who charms a small town). "The novel is very Capote-esque, and reads like a religious parable," says the librettist-lyricist, who is repped by ICM. One very good sign: The musical already has been recorded by Varese Sarabande Records.
Richardson and Cole's other musical, Grossinger's, about a resort in the Catskills, will be performed in concert by the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony Orchestra in spring 2000.