ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the journey of one particular musical. Brustein agreed to produce the new musical, to be called Big River, during American Repertory Theater’s (ART) 1983–1984 season. Big River was thus produced at ART without commercial funds augmenting that theater’s budget. Michael David remembered negotiating the contract with Brustein: ART did receive a continuing financial interest if the show moved to Broadway. A brief respite after Cambridge afforded the team some breathing room to assess the results at ART and focus on the upcoming production in La Jolla. Rocco Landesman’s gambit to stage the show at ART ran the risk of creating fundamental artistic disagreements between the theater’s leadership and the show’s producers. In 1982, the Landesmans were driving to a concert by the Grammy Award-winning country-western singer-songwriter Roger Miller. The Landesmans approached Miller, who seemed bemused by the prospect, but the singer’s wife, Mary, was intrigued.
