Look to the Lilies

Look to the Lilies
Original Playbill
Music	Jule Styne
Lyrics	Sammy Cahn
Book	Leonard Spigelgass
Basis	Novel by William Edmund Barrett Lilies of the Field
Productions	1970 Broadway

Look to the Lilies was a short-lived Broadway musical with a book by Leonard Spigelgass, lyrics by Sammy Cahn, and music by Jule Styne.

Based on both the novel and film versions of Lilies of the Field, it tells the story of a group of German nuns, headed by a determined, dauntless Mother Superior, who manage to get an African American itinerant handyman/jack-of-all-trades named Homer Smith to build a chapel for the New Mexico community in which they live, despite not having money to pay him.

Background

Styne composed his score with Ethel Merman in mind, but director Joshua Logan cast Shirley Booth instead. Sammy Davis, Jr.'s salary demands put him out of the running, and the role of Homer went to Al Freeman, Jr., whom Logan later described as "difficult" and "antagonistic."

Production

The musical premiered on Broadway on March 29, 1970 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, where it ran for 25 performances and 31 previews. The musical was the past 70 years old Booth's last, but she garnered unanimous critical raves from the critics. Raymond Bordner wrote: "Miss Booth is simply marvelous all the way, and it is a real treat to see her again on Broadway". Richard Watts, in the New York Post, mentioned "Miss Booth's warm and gracious appeal." They also praised designer Jo Mielziner's use of desert tones, projections, scrims, and lighting to create the atmosphere and mood of the desert Southwest, but found little else of merit in the show.

Song list

Act I

• Gott is Gut
• First Class Number One Bum
• Himmlisher Vater
• Follow the Lamb
• Don't Talk About God
• When I Was Young
• Meet My Seester
• One Little Brick at a Time
• To Do a Little Good
• There Comes a Time
• Why Can't He See
• I'd Sure Like to Give It a Shot

Act II

• Them and They
• Does It Really Matter
• Look to the Lilies
• I Admire You Very Much Mr. Schmidt
• Some Kind of Man
• Chant
• Casamagordo, New Mexico
• Follow the Lamb (Reprise)
• One Little Brick at a Time (Reprise)
• I, Yes Me, That's Who

References

Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops by Ken Mandelbaum, published by St. Martin's Press (1991), pages 29–31 (ISBN 0-312-06428-4)

External links

• Look to the Lilies at the Internet Broadway Database
• Time Magazine review