Editing Brigadoon (section)

==Background==
Lyricist and book writer [[Alan Jay Lerner]] and composer [[Frederick Loewe]] had previously collaborated on three musicals; the first, ''Life of the Party'', closed during pre-Broadway tryouts, and the second and third, ''[[What's Up? (musical)|What's Up?]]'' and ''[[The Day Before Spring]]'', had met with moderate success.<ref name=BV40>Bloom and Vlastnik, p. 40</ref> Inspired by [[Rodgers and Hammerstein]]'s successful collaborations ''[[Oklahoma!]]'' and ''[[Carousel (musical)|Carousel]]'', they created ''Brigadoon'', about a magical village in the Scottish highlands.<ref name=Kantor205>{{cite book |author=Kantor, Michael |author2=[[Laurence Maslon|Maslon, Laurence]]|title= Broadway: The American Musical|location= New York|publisher= Bullfinch Press|date= 2004|page= [https://archive.org/details/broadwayamerican00kant/page/205 205]|isbn= 0-8212-2905-2|url= https://archive.org/details/broadwayamerican00kant/page/205}}</ref>

Like ''Oklahoma!'' and ''Carousel'', ''Brigadoon'' included a serious love story as the main plot and a lighter romance as subplot.<ref>Stempel, 350</ref> Thematically, the musical depicted the contrast between empty city life and the warmth and simplicity of the country, focusing on a theme of love transcending time.<ref name=BV40/><ref name=Suskin103>Suskin, pp. 103–107</ref> [[Agnes de Mille]], who had previously choreographed ''Oklahoma!'' and ''Carousel'', was hired as choreographer, and her work for ''Brigadoon'' incorporated elements of traditional Scottish folk dance: a traditional sword dance, a chase scene, and a funeral dance.<ref name=BV40/><ref name=Kantor205/>

Though Lerner and Loewe originally took ''Brigadoon'' to producer [[Billy Rose]], [[Cheryl Crawford]] was the producer who actually brought ''Brigadoon'' to Broadway.<ref name=BV40/> Lerner explained the change in producer by saying: "The contract which [Billy Rose] wished us to sign negated [[Abraham Lincoln]]'s [[Emancipation Proclamation]] that freed the slaves."<ref name=BV40/> Under Loewe's guidance, [[Ted Royal]] received a sole orchestrator credit for his work on the original production. His atmospheric arrangements have been frequently used for the revivals.<ref>{{cite book |author=Suskin, Steven |title=The Sound of Broadway Music |publisher= Oxford University Press |location= New York |date= 2009 |page=83}}</ref>

Though the Highland village of Brigadoon is fictional, it is named after the (Lowland) [[Brig o' Doon]], a bridge located south of [[Alloway]], [[Ayrshire]], Scotland,<ref>{{cite book|last=Shelby|first=Barry|title=Frommer's Edinburgh and Glasgow|publisher=[[Wiley (publisher)|John Wiley & Sons]]|location= Chichester, West Sussex|year=2011|isbn=978-0-470-71123-1|page=254}}</ref> which is the setting for the final verse of [[Robert Burns]]'s poem "[[Tam o' Shanter (Burns poem)|Tam o' Shanter]]".

''[[The New York Times]]''{{'s}} theater critic [[George Jean Nathan]] wrote that Lerner's book was based on a German story, published in 1860 by [[Friedrich Gerstäcker]], later translated by Charles Brandon Schaeffer, about the mythical village of [[Germelshausen]] that fell under a magic curse.<ref>{{cite book |author=Lees, Gene |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EujKPSbVOooC&pg=PA49 |chapter=Brigadoon |title=The musical worlds of Lerner and Loewe |publisher= U. of Nebraska Press |date= 2005| isbn= 0-8032-8040-8 |page= 49}}</ref><ref>[[Graeme Harper]], "Meeting the Man from Planet X", in [[Gary D. Rhodes]], ed., ''[[Edgar G. Ulmer]] - Detour on Poverty Row'' ([[Rowman & Littlefield|Lexington Books]], 2008), p. 228. ({{ISBN|978-0-7391-2567-0}})</ref> However, Lerner denied that he had based the book on an older story, and, in an explanation published in ''The New York Times'', stated that he did not learn of the existence of the Germelshausen story until after he had completed the first draft of ''Brigadoon''.<ref name=LernerNYT>{{cite book |author=Lerner, Alan |title=The Street Where I Live |url=https://archive.org/details/streetwhereilive00lern |url-access=registration |publisher= W.W. Norton & Company |location= New York |date= 1978 |page= [https://archive.org/details/streetwhereilive00lern/page/26 26]|isbn=978-0-393-07532-8 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=Lerner, Alan Jay |title=Drama Mailbag |newspaper=The New York Times |date= March 30, 1947 |page=X3}}</ref> Lerner said that in his subsequent research, he found many other legends of disappearing towns in various countries' folklore, and he pronounced their similarities "unconscious coincidence".<ref name=LernerNYT/>