Musicals Blog

Paint Your Wagon - Lerner and Loewe

by Claire J Rottenberg


Four years after their success with "Brigadoon," Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe created the musical "Paint Your Wagon." Although the score included some good songs, the play was not too successful, running for only 289 performances on Broadway. The choreography for the Broadway version of "Paint Your Wagon" was developed by Agnes de Mille.

"Paint Your Wagon" has a plot based on life in a gold mining town in the US in 1853. The best known songs from the musical are "They Call the Wind Maria" and "I Talk to the Trees."

In 1969, a film version of "Paint Your Wagon" was released. The expensive production ran for 2 hours and 44 minutes and starred Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood and Jean Seberg. The movie version of "Paint Your Wagon" included several new songs by Alan Jay Lerner and Andre Previn. The movie was not a success and it soon became a forgotten film.