Rupert Holmes’ smash hit Broadway musical is the winner of Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Book, Best Score, Best Director and Best Actor, and has since been performed somewhere on this planet virtually every day of the year (including performances in Japanese, Dutch and German). Its run on Broadway was followed by two National t\Tours and major productions at London’s Savoy Theatre and The Kennedy Center Opera House. “DROOD” had a full season as the featured musical of Toronto’s prestigious Shaw Festival. Read more about this prestigious production, as well as Rupert’ own essay written for the festival, “The History of the Mystery.”
More recently, THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD had a Broadway revival.
“DROOD” is sheer fun with wild high spirits and the strange dark shadows. Imagine an old-fashioned Victorian theatre company, “The Royale,” who decide to produce their own dramatized and musical version of Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel Edwin Drood. It’s to be done like a Music Hall, so we have a Chairman who introduces the scenes. We have songs – lots of them – and dance numbers, and the whole thing has the glorious feel of those old theatres that always smelled of gas and oranges.
Because the novel was never completed, there’s no knowing how Dickens thought of ending it. What happens here is that the audience is asked to vote on who they think the criminal actually is – so it’s possible to have a different ending every night. Whatever happens, this is a mass of thrills and laughter and glorious music. The author of the Pickwick Papers couldn’t have asked for more adventurous fun.
Visit Betty Buckley’s wonderful website for a fine synopsis of DROOD, as well as information and photos from her work in the musical’s title role.
Among the many synopses of this Tony Award-winning musical, you might try the official description by the company that licenses DROOD, Concord Theatricals.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood is licensed by Concord Theatricals