Senator McCarthy makes music at Sadler’s Wells
May 9, 2012 7:04 pm No Comments
It’s a musical fairytale set in a toy factory, featuring a princess, a witch, and a genie with a lamp. But it’s also a satire on America’s obsession with rooting out communists – led by Senator McCarthy.
Flahooley first opened on Broadway in 1951 – with music by Sammy Fain, who’d written Calamity Jane, and lyrics by EY Harburg, the man behind The Wizard of Oz. Harburg had been publicly named as a communist the year before – and it was partly to express his anger that he began to write the show.
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