Camelot Background Information

A 1960 musical play, Camelot is based on the legend of King Arthur adapted from T.H. White's The Once and Future King. The play's book and lyrics were written by Alan Jay Lerner while its music was written by Frederic Loewe. The play shows the conflict arising from the affair between Guenevere, Arthur's wife, and Sir Lancelot, his friend. Lerner and Moss Hart in 1959 embarked on a project to adapt T.H. White's book into a musical. Loewe agreed to write the music for this, but announced that it would be his last score. The production for the show experienced a lot of difficulties, however. When the rehearsals were begun, the play was still not in good shape. This was offset by a strong cast which included Andrews, Burton, and McDowall.

The musical play was first performed at the O'Keefe Centre in Toronto. The reviews indicated that there was a lot of work still to be done for Camelot to be a success. The show experienced yet more difficulties, including Lerner's suffering from bleeding ulcer and Hart's having a heart attack. On December 3, 1960, Camelot was performed at the Majestic Theater on Broadway. It was still not a hit, but not as bad as before either, as the reactions of the critics was mixed. Later on, Ed Sullivan talked to Lerner and Loewe about a portion for his TV show Toast of the Town that would celebrate the 5th anniversary of My Fair Lady.

Lerner and Loewe took on the project, but for the segment they took only a little part from My Fair Lady and did 4 highlights from Camelot. This boosted the play's popularity and resulted in increased ticket sales. News also spread after the assassination of John F. Kennedy that he usually listened to Camelot's original cast recording at bedtime. This also helped spread the fame of the musical play. Camelot has been from that time on associated with the Kennedy administration.