On the sofa in our holiday home near the Accademia where David resides, marking notes where we’d seen the same bridges and churches as we wandered through Firenze. A wisp of a novel, it could be read extremely quickly, but I managed it in little pieces as we traveled. It is still so nearly out of print (though seems to currently be packaged in this academic anthology), and eventually I did get this used copy that came with the world’s finest bookmark.īut it took me until I finally planned a trip to Florence, Italy before I took it down from the shelf and turned the pages. I knew then, hearing her speak about her story, that it would be a lovely novella and I would enjoy reading it one day. She was small and elderly and very quiet, and she could hardly believe what was happening to her little book that was no longer even in print. That year I went to see a talk at Lincoln Center in New York with Elizabeth Spencer (the author) and Adam Guettel (who wrote the musical). Josh Clayton | Director of Music Administration & Score RestorationĬamille A.Like a lot of people, probably, I was unaware of this author until 2005 when this story was chosen for a theatrical adaptation, and now it’s a relatively famous musical. Gish, Ivan Hernandez, Ruthie Ann Miles, and Anna ZavelsonĬlint Ramos | Producing Creative Director Orchestrations by Ted Sperling, Adam Guettel and Bruce Coughlinįeaturing Shereen Ahmed, Andréa Burns, Rodd Cyrus, James D. Scenic Designers Clint Ramos & Miguel Urbino Owner of the original motion picture The Light In The Piazza

Produced by arrangement with Turner Entertainment Co. Gish ( Wicked) and Ivan Hernandez ( The Good Wife) as the Italian family whose lives are transformed by a chance encounter with a lost hat. Under the direction of Chay Yew ( Cambodian Rock Band) and Guest Music Director Rob Berman ( Into the Woods), this staged concert production also includes Shereen Ahmed ( My Fair Lady), Andréa Burns (Encores! Dear World), Rodd Cyrus, James D. Tony-winning actress Ruthie Ann Miles ( The King & I, City Center’s Sunday in the Park with George) leads the cast as an American mother on vacation in 1950s Florence with her daughter ( Anna Zavelson, 13 Reasons Why) confronting painful memories and life-changing opportunities alike. “A work of such consummate beauty, truth, energy … you leave the theater filled with joy and revived by hope for the future.” Heralded as a new direction for musical theater when it opened on Broadway, The Light in the Piazza won six Tony Awards, including Best Original Score for Adam Guettel ( Days of Wine and Roses), who brought surprising chromatic complexity to his lush, operatic songs, and-with Tony-winning playwright Craig Lucas ( An American in Paris)-took the adventurous step of including untranslated Italian lyrics and dialogue to better capture this cross-cultural love story.

Light in the piazza novel