The Theater: New Operetta in Manhattan

Candide (based on Voltaire's satire; book by Lillian Hellman; score by Leonard Bernstein; lyrics by Richard Wilbur; other lyrics by John Latouche and Dorothy Parker) is a medley of the brilliant, the uneven, the exciting, the earthbound, the adventurous and the imperfectly harmonized. It is not an especially Voltairian Candide; more significantly, it is not in the least a conventional Broadway musical, for the very good reason that it plainly never sought to be.

In his famous 18th century satire against facile optimism and idealism, Voltaire had guileless young Candide's tutor, Dr. Pangloss, teach him that this is the best of all...

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