By Jupiter is a musical with a book by Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers, music by Rodgers, and lyrics by Hart. The musical is based on the play The Warrior's Husband by Julian F. Thompson, set in the land of the Amazons. By Jupiter premiered on Broadway in 1942 and starred Ray Bolger, and was the last musical written by Rodgers and Hart; when Hart’s erratic behavior was often the cause of friction between him and Rodgers and led to a breakup of their partnership the following year before his death. Rodgers then began collaborating with Oscar Hammerstein II.
Synopsis
In the land of the Amazons the women rule and do battle while the men stay at home, mind the children, and buy new hats. An army of Greeksoldiers, led by Theseus and Hercules, arrives in search of the Sacred Girdle of Diana, currently in the hands of reigning Queen Hippolyta. Accompanying them is war correspondentHomer, author of a recent bestseller called The Iliad. The Greek warriors are captured by the Amazons, and romance blossoms between Theseus and Antiope, the warrior-leader of the Amazons. A subplot involves Hippolyta's foppish husband Sapiens, forced on her by his wealthy mother, in exchange for financing the war against the Greeks, who employs his "non-traditionally-male wiles" to get his way with the opposite sex.
A revival opened Off-Broadway at the Theatre Four on January 19, 1967, and closed on April 30, 1968, after 118 performances. This production had new material by Fred Ebb. Directed by Christopher Hewett with choreography and musical staging by Ellen Ray, Bob Dishy headed the cast. An original cast recording was released of this production, reissued in CD on September 11, 2007, by DRG.[1]
Ian Marshall Fisher's Discovering Lost Musicals Charitable Trust presented a concert staging in London at the Barbican Center, Cinema 1 in May 1992, with Louise Gold as Hippolyta and Jon Glover as Sapiens. Issy Van Randwyck was also among the cast.[2][3]
42nd Street Moon, San Francisco, California, presented a staged concert from April 17 – May 12, 2002.[4][5]
Musicals in Mufti at the York Theatre in New York City presented a staged concert from April 5–7, 2002.[6]
Village Light Opera Group at Vineyard's Dimson Theatre in New York City presented a staging of the musical from May 17-19, 2019 directed by Michael Blatt, with music direction by James Higgins and special guest appearances from Lorenz Hart's nephew, Larry Hart, and librettist/lyricist Michael Colby.[7]
The musical proved to be not only Rodgers and Hart's longest-running Broadway hit, but their last full-length work. (They collaborated on a revision of their 1927 show A Connecticut Yankee in 1943, writing six new numbers.)
