Happiness
by John Weidman, Michael Korie, Scott Frankel

Name: Happiness
Brand: John Weidman
SKU: 9780573709609

Highlights

Female

Male

105 mins

Awards & Recognition

Outer Critics Circle

Nominee: Four 2009 Outer Critics Circle Awards, including Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical and Outstanding New Score

Synopsis

Happiness tells the stories of a dozen harried New Yorkers stuck in the morning rush hour on a stalled subway car, where they are required by the spectral trainman to recall and reenact the happiest moment in their lives before they can continue their travels... and travails.

Happiness celebrates those fleeting moments in everyday lives – typically unanticipated, largely overlooked, always ephemeral – that upon reflection become people’s fondest memories.

Press Reviews

"Happiness has a jazzy score and clever lyrics, thanks to composer Scott Frankel and lyricist Michael Korie, who also did Grey Gardens. They have a gift for understanding the subtle contradictions in people and exposing the vulnerability beneath a polished exterior."
— Fern Seigel, The Huffington Post

"This highly imaginative production moves seamlessly, reeling in its audience in the first five minutes and never letting it off the hook... one of the unexpected delights of the waning theatrical season."
— Frederick M. Winship, United Press International

"110 minutes of flawless, nonstop entertainment. It amazes. It is the work of sometime Sondheim librettist John Weidman, with music and lyrics by Grey Gardens creators Scott Frankel and Michael Korie and direction and choreography by the eminent Susan Stroman, which adds up to as good a pedigree as one could hope for in a new musical."
— John Simon, Bloomberg.com

"Chock-full of wonderful, original, thought-provoking characters, ideas and songs. It’s one of the best musicals of the last 10 years to not get recorded. If a musical plays in the forest but nobody makes an original cast recording, did it really play? (In all seriousness, a Happiness cast recording must happen.)"
— Jennifer Ashley Tepper, Playbill.com