In their first effort for Broadway, George Forrest and Robert Wright, two successful Hollywood composer-lyricists, liberally borrowed from Edvard Grieg to create a musical, Song of Norway, that became a hit show in the 1944-45 season. A loose adaptation of the celebrated composer’s life and his struggle to create an authentic Norwegian music, the show starred Lawrence Brooks as Grieg, and was notable for its featured folk dances performed by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, in a choreography signed by George Balanchine. It opened at the Imperial Theatre on August 21, 1944, and had a run of 860 performances. Though it became a successful film later in years, stage revivals have been infrequent. One of the most enjoyable occurred in 1958, at the Jones Beach Marine Theatre, in Long Island, NY, with a scintillating cast of young Broadway stalwarts that included John Reardon, Brenda Lewis, and Muriel O’Malley, and Sig Arno of the original 1944 cast. With veteran music conductor Lehman Engel at the baton, and Stan Freeman at the keyboards for the concerto piano solo, the show opened on June 22, 1958, for a limited run through Labor Day.

First LP release: June 1959