the john muir exhibit -
mountain days: the john muir musical
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john muir exhibit
Mountain Days: The John Muir Musical
Music by Craig Bohmler
Book and Lyrics by Mary Bracken Phillips |
The exciting life story of John Muir has been made into a wonderful Broadway-style
musical. Mountain Days depicts Muir's passionate quest to explore and preserve the natural beauty of America, as well as his loving devotion to his wife Louie.
The original score of Mountain Days is by award-winning Phoenix, Arizona composer Craig Bohmler. He is the composer of a dozen other musical theater works, and also of opera, including the acclaimed 2017 Riders of the Purple Sage. His musical Enter the Guardsman took first prize in the International Musical of the Year Competition in Denmark and performed off-Broadway in May, 2001 and was included in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's 2000 season. His other works include "The Achilles Heel" (winner of the National Opera Association competition), and "Gunmetal Blues" (National Theater Conference selection).
Bohmler describes the play's score as being "Sondheimian in structure and Rodgers and Hammersteinian in musical approach," referring to composers Stephen Sondheim, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. You can listen to several songs from Mountain Days on his website.
Book and Lyrics are by Tony-nominated playwright Mary Bracken Phillips. She is a playwright and lyrical composer of several other musicals. You can listen to several songs from Mountain Days on her website.
The Mountain Days musical is based on a concept by
director Richard Elliott, of the now-defunct Willows Theatre Company of Concord, California.
Mountain Days premiered in October, 2000, at the outdoor 15,000-seat Chronicle Pavilion in Concord, California, with a cast of 80 performers, 28 symphony musicians and a 50 person chorus. It then played for several seasons at the "John Muir Ampitheatre" in Martinez, California, beginning in 2001.
Additional versions have been presented since that time in Illinois (2009), and in Arizona (2019):
The passionate, turbulent, glorious life of John Muir is told on stage, with an emphasis on music, from his youth in Scotland and Wisconsin, to his famous 1,000 mile walk down the Eastern seaboard, to his arrival at the bustling wharfs of San Francisco in 1868, to his travels in Yosemite and his persistent efforts to protect Yosemite and the glorious Hetch Hetchy Valley from destruction.
Concept and Origin
Premiering with performances over a four day period, the musical garnered an attendance
of nearly 10,000. From the start, the musical earned high critical praise. It was very successful among audiences as well - selling out seven of its eight shows in 2001, expanded to 16 shows in 2002, and performed annually for several years afterward. A cast recording was made in 2000.
The original concept by director Richard Elliott of the now-defunct Willows Theatre Company called
for presenting the show as an annual event, so the 1,100 seat outdoor John Muir
Amphitheater was constructed in the Martinez Waterfront Park for the 2001 presentation. "Historical dramas are common place in the mid-west and the east, but we have
very few in California and none in Northern California," Elliott explains. According to Elliott, John Muir is a natural choice for northern California. "After all, he did most of his writing and fought his major environmental battles from his ranch in Martinez, which is now designated a National Historical Site." Thus, the concept included a large cast, from old to young, and included three horses. City and arts leaders wanted to make the musical -- which has not only an important environmental message, but a huge amount of fun with Muir's adventures and his love for his wife, Louie Strentzel -- the centerpiece for an ambitious plan to attract visitors from around the state in similar fashion to the Ramona Pageant in Hemet (Riverside County, southern California). According to Scott Parker, director of the Institute of Outdoor Drama at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Mountain Days had all the makings for a successful ongoing outdoor musical drama: " The secret of the success of outdoor dramas is that they dramatize events that were significant in the life of a community or events in the life of a famous person who lived in the community. So people go to these outdoor dramas almost as if they were taking a pilgrimage, going to walk the hallowed ground, as it were. It's not like producing 'Hello, Dolly!' outdoors. (The institute now works with theaters that produce 50 historical dramas, 65 Shakespearean festivals and 11 religious dramas. But they are clustered in the East, and just three historical dramas are staged in California.) Nonetheless, after about six years, financial problems by the Willows Theatre Company which was producing the show, and perhaps by the fact that the waterfront venue was subject to the night-time chilling winds that blow through the Carquinez Strait, resulted in the production being stopped. The John Muir Amphitheater in Martinez is now re-named the Martinez Waterfront Ampitheater.
Due to unrelated causes, perhaps trying to support three venues simultaneously, the producer of the show, the Willows Theatre Company, after a run of 35 years, went out of business. The Willows Board filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on August 16, 2012. Ironically, two weeks before The Willows closed, it was named one of the "Best Theatre Companies in the East Bay" by critic Charles Kruger in the Examiner.com and the CBS-5 web site.
However, the Mountain Days musical is still available for new productions. In 2009, Mountain Days was presented by Theatre-Hikes at
The Morton Arboretum near Chicago, Illinois.
Watch a YouTube
video of photos taken during this presentation. The video is accompanied
by instrumental piano music from the musical. Since that time, songs from the musical are often performed at special events, such as at the annual John Muir Birthday/Earth Day event at the John Muir National Historic Site in Martinez.
In March, 2019, the musical will have its Arizona premiere, as Mountain Days: The Concert, performed by the Pro Music a Arizona Chorale and Orchestra in Phoenix, Arizona. The production will feature Arizona award-winning actors Rusty Ferracane, Trisha Ditsworth, James Gish and Matt Newhard. Multimedia visuals will accompany the concert experience. There will be two performances: March 23 2019 | 7:30 p.m. | North Valley Christian Academy, Phoenix, AZ, and March 24 2019 | 3:00 p.m. | American Lutheran Church, Phoenix. AZ.
The Story
This musical reveals a conflicted Muir trying to balance his love of family with his compulsion for the outdoors while being unwillingly drawn into the politics of preservation. The poetic lyrics are often drawn from Muir's copious writings while the sweeping score reflects the grandeur of a land not yet conquered by greed. The story follows his journey from boyhood in Scotland to a farm in Wisconsin; from ingenious inventor to determined preservationist. You take his 1,000 mile walk with him, and see Yosemite Falls through his eyes. As Muir develops from an inventor into a crusader determined to preserve the natural beauty of the land for
future generations, historical luminaries such as Teddy Roosevelt and William Keith appear. "A Valley has a Soul" portrays Muir's successful drive to have Yosemite declared a National Park, and his unsuccessful attempt to keep the beautiful Hetch Hetchy Valley from becoming a "water tank" for San Francisco. The passionate and tender love story between Muir and his devoted wife Louie Strenzel is told as well, with the soaring lyrics of "Love is Knowing When to Let You Go." Songs such as "San Francisco" and "The Political Waltz" give hilarious insight into the culture and politics of the day. The finale is a spirited reprise of "Climb the Mountains" performed by the entire cast, which will brings tears of exultation and gladness to your eyes.
More from Mountain Days:
See also
Offsite links:
Craig Bohmler - Mountain Days Music Composer
Mary Bracken Phillips - Mountain Days - Book and Lyrics
Updated: 25 March 2023
See also:
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