Maggie Flynn

Maggie Flynn is a 1968 musical with a book by Morton DaCosta and music and lyrics by Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore, and George David Weiss.

Based on an idea by John Flaxman, it was inspired by a true story set in the

Critics found the basic situation of Jones and the children threatened by political unrest to be too similar to The Sound of Music,^[1] albeit told in an unrelentingly darker manner. They thought that efforts to equate the New York Draft Riots with contemporary protests against the Vietnam War were heavy-handed and counter-productive. "It is worth noting that two of the first night critics came up with the same line, calling Maggie Flynn the best Broadway musical since Her First Roman — thereby honoring a desperately lousy mishmash that opened three days earlier."^[2]

An

During the American Civil War, Maggie Flynn, a young Irish woman living in New York City, marries Phineas, a charming scoundrel who leaves her to join the circus. Maggie runs an orphanage for black orphans, and soon is engaged to Colonel John Farraday, a steady and faithful beau. However, Phineas, now called "The Clown," returns to win back his wife. They become caught up in the New York Draft Riots of 1863, and the orphanage is burned down.

Songs

Award nomination

• 1969 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical - Jack Cassidy

Notes

References

• 'Not Since Carrie:' Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops by
  ISBN 0-312-06428-4
  )
• Open a New Window: The Broadway Musical in the 1960s by
  ISBN 0-312-23952-1
  )

• Internet Broadway Database listing