Angel is a Broadway musical

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 that opened at the Minskoff Theatre

Minskoff Theatre

The Minskoff Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre, located at 1515 Broadway in midtown-Manhattan. It is now showing the musical The Lion King, based on the Disney animated film of the same name....

 in New York on May 4th 1978.

It was based on Ketti Frings

Ketti Frings

Ketti Frings was an American author, playwright, and screenwriter.-Early years:Born Katherine Hartley in Columbus, Ohio, Frings attended Principia College, began her career as a copywriter, and went on to work as a feature writer for United Press International.-Career:In 1941 her novel Hold Back...

’ theatrical adaptation of the best-selling Thomas Wolfe

Thomas Wolfe

Thomas Clayton Wolfe was a major American novelist of the early 20th century.Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels, plus many short stories, dramatic works and novellas. He is known for mixing highly original, poetic, rhapsodic, and impressionistic prose with autobiographical writing...

 novel Look Homeward, Angel

Look Homeward, Angel

Look Homeward, Angel: A Story of the Buried Life is a 1929 novel by Thomas Wolfe. It is Wolfe's first novel, and is considered a highly autobiographical American Bildungsroman. The character of Eugene Gant is generally believed to be a depiction of Wolfe himself. The novel covers the span of time...

. The play (with the same title as the novel) was a 1958 Pulitzer Prize

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

 winner.

The musical featured songs with lyrics by Peter Udell and music by Gary Geld - the same team who created the musicals Shenandoah

Shenandoah (musical)

Shenandoah is a musical that was written in 1975 with music by Gary Geld, lyrics by Peter Udell, and a book by Udell, Philip Rose and James Lee Barrett, based on Barrett's original screenplay for the 1965 film Shenandoah.-Productions:...

and Purlie

Purlie

Purlie is a musical with a book by Ossie Davis, Philip Rose, and Peter Udell, lyrics by Udell, and music by Gary Geld. It is based on Davis' 1961 play Purlie Victorious, which was later made into the 1963 film Gone Are the Days! and which included all of the original Broadway cast, including Ruby...

. Frings and Udell collaborated on the book. Angel was directed by Philip Rose and choreographed by Robert Tucker. The production featured costumes by Pearl Somner, lighting design by John Gleason and scenery by Ming Cho Lee.

For her performance, Frances Sternhagen

Frances Sternhagen

Frances Hussey Sternhagen is an American actress. Sternhagen has appeared on and off Broadway, in movies, and on TV since the 1950s.-Personal life:...

 received a 1978 Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical

Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical

The Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical is the Tony Awards award given to the actress who was voted as the best leading actress in a musical, whether a new production or a revival...

. Additionally, Joel Higgins

Joel Higgins

Joel Franklin Higgins is an American actors and singer with a stage career spanning over 30 years.- Life and Career :...

 was nominated for a 1978 Drama Desk Award

Drama Desk Award

The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...

 for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical.

The musical was savaged by the critics, and closed on the 13th of May after only five performances.

Songs

Angel is set in Altamount, North Carolina in the fall of 1916. In Act One, the scene is the Dixieland Boarding House. In Act Two, Scene One is set in Gant's marble yard and shop; and Scenes Two and Three are set again in the Dixieland Boarding House.
Act One

• "Angel Theme" - Orchestra
• "All the Comforts of Home" - Boarders
• "Like the Eagles Fly" - Ben Gant
• "Make a Little Sunshine" - Eliza Gant, Eugene Gant, Ben Gant
• "Fingers and Toes" - W.O. Gant, Tim Laughran, Reed McKinney, Joe Tarkington
• "Fatty" - Ben Gant
• "Astoria Gloria" - Fatty Pert and Boarders
• "Railbird" - Eugene Gant
• "If I Ever Loved Him" - Laura James
• "A Dime Ain't Worth a Nickel" - Ben Gant, Fatty Pert
• "I Got a Dream to Sleep On" - Eugene Gant
• "Drifting" - Eliza Gant

Act Two

• "I Can't Believe It's You" - W.O. Gant, Madam Victoria
• "Feelin' Loved" - Eugene Gant, Laura James
• "A Medley" - Ben, Fatty, Eliza, Laura
• "Tomorrow I'm Gonna Be Old" - W.O. Gant
• "Feelin' Loved (Reprise)" - Eugene and Laura
• "How Do You Say Goodbye" - Laura
• "Gant's Waltz" - W.O. Gant and Eliza Gant
• "Like the Eagles Fly (Reprise)" - Eugene Gant

Original Broadway cast

• Donna Davis - Helen Gant
• Joel Higgins
  Joel Higgins
  Joel Franklin Higgins is an American actors and singer with a stage career spanning over 30 years.- Life and Career :...
  
   - Ben Gant
• Patti Allison - Mrs. Fatty Pert
• Grace Carney - Mrs. Snowden
• Don Scardino
  Don Scardino
  Don Scardino is an American television director and producer and a former actor.-Acting:Born in New York City, Scardino began his career as an actor. His first Broadway credit was as an understudy in The Playroom in 1965. Additional Broadway acting credits include Johnny No-Trump, Godspell, and...
  
   - Eugene Gant
• Frances Sternhagen
  Frances Sternhagen
  Frances Hussey Sternhagen is an American actress. Sternhagen has appeared on and off Broadway, in movies, and on TV since the 1950s.-Personal life:...
  
   - Eliza Gant
• Elek Hartman - Will Pentland
• Rebecca Seay - Florry Mangle
• Justine Johnston - Mrs. Clatt
• Gene Masoner - Jake Clatt
• Billy Beckham - Mr. Farrell
• Jayne Barnett - Miss Brown
• Leslie Ann Ray - Laura James
• Fred Gwynne
  Fred Gwynne
  Frederick Hubbard "Fred" Gwynne was an American actor. Gwynne was best known for his roles in the 1960s sitcoms Car 54, Where Are You? and The Munsters, as well as his later roles: Pet Sematary and My Cousin Vinny...
  
   - W. O. Gant
• Daniel Keyes - Dr. Maguire
• Rex David Hays - Joe Tarkington
• Carl Nicholas - Reed McKinney
• Norman Stotz - Tim Laughran
• Patricia Englund - Madame Victoria

Critical response

Reviewing for The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, Richard Eder wrote:

• "Angel...is a damp and oppressive amalgam of bathos. It has lyrics of the consistency of cornbread soaked in milk, a whole collection of indifferent performances and a score of sufficient banality to furnish a number or two for the piped music on airplanes waiting to take off."
• "The performances have no shine to them; at best they are losing battles."
• "Mr. Geld's score is so thin and trite as to make us notice Don Walker's orchestration. Its vulgarity is unfailing."
• "It is putting things too strongly to call "Angel" a disaster. It is a desert."