The Boys Are Coming Home
Encyclopedia
The Boys Are Coming Home was the second new 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...

 to emerge from AMTP at Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

. Written in 2005 and based on Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero....

, this musical is set in the year 1945, when American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 servicemen returned home from World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. With music and lyrics by Leslie Arden
Leslie Arden
Leslie Arden is a Canadian musical theatre composer, lyricist and librettist. She has been described as "arguably Canada's most talented Musical Theatre writer". She is best known for her work The House of Martin Guerre produced by Theatre Plus , the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and the Canadian...

 and book by Berni Stapleton, The Boys Are Coming Home is a captivating journey through the joys and challenges of post-war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...

 life. The Boys Are Coming Home was directed by Gary Griffin
Gary Griffin
Gary Griffin, is an American theater director. Griffin grew up in Rockford, Illinois, where he graduated from East High School in 1978. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire where he performed in several musicals and directed "Hello Dolly" for their Summer Theatre program...

 (assisted by Jason Tyne).

The Boys Are Coming Home was chosen for inclusion in the National Alliance for Music Theatre Festival
Festival
A festival or gala is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on and celebrates some unique aspect of that community and the Festival....

 of New Works in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and was renamed One Step Forward
One Step Forward
"One Step Forward" is the title of a song written by Chris Hillman and Bill Wildes, and recorded by American country music group The Desert Rose Band. It was released in October 1987 as the third single from the album The Desert Rose Band. The song reached #2 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles &...

.

It was listed on the Goodman Theatre
Goodman Theatre
The Goodman Theatre is a professional theater company located in Chicago's Loop. A major part of Chicago theatre, it is the city's oldest currently active nonprofit theater organization...

's 2007-8 season with a new book by Rebecca Gilman
Rebecca Gilman
Rebecca Gilman is an American playwright. She attended Middlebury College, graduated from Birmingham-Southern College, and earned a Master of Fine Arts from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop at the University of Iowa...

 and was to be directed by David Petrarca. This would have been the second
Second
The second is a unit of measurement of time, and is the International System of Units base unit of time. It may be measured using a clock....

 Arden/Petrarca team-up
Team-up
In American superhero comic books, a team-up is when two superheroes or superhero teams who usually do not appear together fight crime together.-Overview:Team-ups can either happen within one of the character's main series or in their own separate series...

 with their first being Goodman's production of The House of Martin Guerre
The House of Martin Guerre
The House of Martin Guerre is a musical written by Leslie Arden and Anna Theresa Cascio . It is inspired by the 16th century French peasant Martin Guerre. It was first produced by Theatre Plus under the direction of Duncan McIntosh in Toronto at the Jane Mallett Theatre. It won the 1994 Dora...

 back in 1996, but irreconcilable artistic points of view among the key collaborators scuttled the planned world premiere 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...

 (which reverted to its original title The Boys Are Coming Home) and director Chuck Smith's staging of Ain't Misbehavin', the popular revue of songs by Fats Waller
Fats Waller
Fats Waller , born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer...

 which was originally slated for April-May in the Goodman's Owen Theatre was bumped to the Albert Theatre and assumed the dates of The Boys are Coming Home.

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