Candide

Based on Voltaire’s satirical novella of the same name, Candide follows a naive young man as he strives to maintain his optimism while trying to make sense of a chaotic and ruthless world. His illusions are first assailed when he falls in love and gets exiled as a result. Then he, his beloved, and their companions undergo a fantastical series of adventures, mishaps, separations, and reunions that take them from Lisbon to Spain, across the ocean to the New World, and finally to Turkey. Along the way they experience the worst that humanity has to offer. Penniless, desperate, and still in search of happiness upon reaching Constantinople, they visit the Wisest Man in the World to learn a better way of living.

Composed by Leonard Bernstein, the score of this comic operetta sparkles with some of his best music for the stage. Songs include “The Best of All Possible Worlds,” the showstopping “Glitter and Be Gay,” and “Make Our Garden Grow,” a powerful anthem of perseverance. Directing this production is Broadway visionary Harold Prince, who also directed the original Cabaret, Sweeney Todd, and The Phantom of the Opera. The choreographer is Emmy Award-winning and Tony-nominated Patricia Birch, whose original choreography for Prince’s 1974 Broadway production of Candide earned her a Drama Desk Award. The versatile cast of rising opera stars and Broadway veterans includes Tony winner Linda Lavin and Tony nominee Gregg Edelman.