new repertory theatre STUDY GUIDE CAMELOT book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner music by Frederick Loewe Education Outreach Supporters Funded in part by generous individual contributors, Procter and Gamble, Target Stores, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Roy A. Hunt Foundation, Fuller Foundation, Watertown Community Foundation, Highland Street Foundation, LEAP and the Foundation for MetroWest. lifelong enrichment arts programs administrative office 200 dexter avenue watertown, ma 02472 artistic director jim petosa managing director harriet sheets the professional theatre company in residence at the arsenal center for the arts Contents ‘‘ 2 Synopsis of CAMELOT 4 A Modern Camelot Each evening, from December to December, Before you drift to sleep upon your cot, 3 Program Notes 5 Pre-Show and Post-Show Questions Think back on all the tales that you remember Of Camelot. 4 The Beginnings of a Classic 5 Works Cited Ask ev’ry person if he’s heard the story, And tell it strong and clear zif he has not, That once there was a fleeting wisp of glory ” Called Camelot.Camelot (Reprise) - Arthur, “ Synopsis of CAMELOT Camelot is the fictional setting begin to fade. He realizes that Nimue, to go to Camelot and join Arthur’s where the legend of King Arthur and a beautiful water nymph, has come to knights (“C’est Moi”). King Pellinore, his Knights of the Round Table takes draw him into her cave for an eternal an elderly man who was a friend of place. The play opens with King sleep in the song “Follow Me”. His Arthur’s family, also visits Camelot Arthur hiding in a tree, nervous about memories fade permanently, and he to witness Arthur’s greatness. his upcoming arranged marriage. is led away. After Lancelot arrives, Guenevere Merlyn the Magician, Arthur’s wise Five years later, Arthur sits with organizes a May Day festival on the tutor, calls him down to warn the Guenevere in his study, debating castle grounds (“The Lusty Month young man that he must learn to about what to do for his kingdom. of May”), where Arthur introduces think for himself. Merlyn, who lives He explains that he wishes to create her to Lancelot. Guenevere takes backwards in time and remembers a new kind of knight – one that does an instant dislike to this cocky fellow the future instead of the past, knows not pillage and fight, but upholds and instigates him to engage three he will soon be separated from knights of the Round Table in a Arthur. Merlyn persuades Arthur to ‘‘jousting match (“Then You May Take climb down and chides him for his Me to the Fair”). Unlike everyone unkingly behavior. Arthur then left else, Arthur likes Lancelot, and tries alone, ponders both his subjects and to dissuade Guenevere from taking his own feelings about the intended sides against the young knight. After nuptials in the song “I Wonder What failing to convince her, Arthur is at the King is Doing Tonight?”. Arthur a loss to understand a woman’s way hears someone coming and scampers (“How to Handle a Woman”). up the tree again. Guenevere has In the jousting match, Lancelot come to the woods and does not like easily defeats all three knights. He the idea of being Queen, preferring wounds Sir Lionel so badly that the to live an ordinary life (“Simple Joys crowd thinks him dead (“The Jousts”). ‘‘ of Maidenhood”). She stumbles But the dismay of the crowd turns into Arthur not knowing he is her to awe and adoration, as instead intended future husband and he tells Lancelot appears to resurrect a dead her of the joys of life in Camelot in man. Guenevere finds herself falling the song “Camelot”. It is love at first in love with Lancelot, although she THE QUEEN’S CHAMPION BY HOWARD DAVID JOHNSON sight and they almost kiss, but are does not want to violate her marriage interrupted by Arthur’s attendants. honor and justice. With Guenevere’s vows and wishes Lancelot would Arthur’s identity is revealed, and he help, he is inspired to establish the leave Camelot (“Before I Gaze at You tells Guenevere the story of how he Round Table with the motto “might Again”). Lancelot is also conflicted, pulled the sword from the stone and for right.” A few months later, because although he is devoted to became king. Guenevere is charmed Arthur’s idea has led to the Knights King Arthur, he is and they are delighted at the thought of the Round Table becoming of becoming husband and wife. The renowned throughout the wizard Merlyn is pleased with this country. This news reaches A knight of the Table Round should be invincible, development, but his joy turns to young Frenchman Lancelot Succeed where a less fantastic man would fail. Climb a wall no one else can climb, sorrow as his memories of the future du Lac, who is determined Cleave a dragon in record time, ” Swim a moat in a coatC’est of Moi heavy iron mail. - Lancelot, “ CAMELOT Study Guide ‘‘ 2 Synopsis of CAMELOT continued in love with Guenevere. Arthur sees he detests the idea of being a Knight Lancelot, who takes her off with him that the two are in love but chooses (“The Seven Deadly Virtues”). As to France. For the sake of his own to ignore it, as he does not wish to Guenevere remains faithful to her honor and that of Camelot, Arthur upset the tranquility of Camelot. husband, Arthur begins to feel the must now wage war on France. Several years later, Guenevere strain of ruling England (“What Do The war takes a terrible toll on and Lancelot are still tormented by Simple Folks Do”). Meanwhile, Camelot, as more than half of the their unfulfilled love (“If Ever I Would Mordred has devised a plan to trap Knights of the Round Table are Leave You”). Then Mordred, Arthur’s Arthur in the‘‘ forest one night with the killed. Lancelot and Guenevere’s illegitimate son, comes to Camelot help of his aunt, Morgan le Fey (“The relationship has floundered and to dishonor the King and try to Persuasion”). While Arthur is gone, Guenevere has become a nun. Just gain the throne for himself. Arthur Lancelot visits Guenevere in her before the final battle, Arthur meets puts him in charge of the Knight’s chambers, where she tells Lancelot Lancelot and Guenevere and forgives training program, not knowing the how much she loves him (“I Loved them both. In camp, Arthur meets a nature of Mordred’s true intentions of You Once in Silence”). Mordred young stowaway who wants to join revenge. Mordred accepts, though bursts into the room with some of the Round Table. Arthur knights the Knights of the Round Table to him on the field of battle and sends accuse Lancelot of treachery and to him back to England to grow up Oh, no! not in spring-time! imprison him. Lancelot succeeds in there, hoping that he might pass Summer, winter or fall! escaping from prison, but Guenevere on to future generations the ideals is arrested, found guilty of treason of chivalry and Camelot (“Camelot” No, never could I leave you at all! ” - Lancelot, “If Ever I Would Leave You by reason of her infidelity, and {reprise}). sentenced to be burned at the stake (“Guenevere”). She is saved by ‘‘ Program Notes “There’ll be great presidents again...but there’ll never be another Camelot,” Jacqueline Kennedy said in an interview with Theodore H. White one week after her husband, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated. White quoted Jacqueline Kennedy in an essay he published in Life magazine on December 6, 1963 titled “For President Kennedy: An Epilogue.” Since that time, the Kennedy administration has been linked with King Arthur’s mythical Camelot, which represents a utopian ideal, a world filled with hope and dreams. Theodore H. White would later refer to the Kennedy administration as “a magic moment in American history when gallant men danced with beautiful women, when great deeds were done, when artists, writers and poets met at the White House, and the barbarians beyond the walls held back.” During President Kennedy’s lifetime, no one referred to Washington as Camelot, but Kennedy was familiar with the cast recording of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s CAMELOT. His favorite moment, Jacqueline Kennedy said, came during the final number, when King Arthur urges a young knight to inspire future generations to idealism: “Don’t let it be forgot/That once there was a spot,/For one brief, shining moment/That was known as Camelot.” PHOTO BY STAN TRETICK/UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL CAMELOT Study Guide 3 The Beginnings of a Classic Alan Jay Lerner was first inspired White’s text. Whereas White blames CAMELOT were lengthy, in keeping to write CAMELOT in 1958, when his the fall of Camelot on “greed and with the massive size of the production friend Stone “Bud” Widney showed selfishness and violence in the heart itself: there were fifty-six actors in him a New York Times book review of of man,” Lerner blames the fall on the cast, thirty-three musicians in Terence H. White’s novel, The Once adultery, and he simplifies the story the orchestra. At its October 1960 and Future King, and suggested it to two mythic elements: the love premiere in Toronto, the musical ran should be his next musical, following triangle and the round table. Lerner four and a half hours. By the time the the success of MY FAIR LADY. White and Loewe further condensed and show arrived on Broadway after its had based his saga on Thomas altered White’s story to meet new stop in Boston, one and a half hours Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur (1485), a challenges brought on by changes of music and dialogue, including a compilation of the legends of King in musical theatre.