04/10/2025
Welcome back to 🎭! Today, we’re highlighting a Tale of two musicals...two Canterbury Tales to be specific. Geoffrey Chaucer’s late 14th century collection of 24 stories told by a group of pilgrims as they travel from London to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral is no stranger to artistic representation, and that includes two musical adaptations with very different experiences.
The first of these, an opera titled 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘺 𝘗𝘪𝘭𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘴, was composed by Reginald De Koven and featured a libretto by Percy MacKaye loosely based on the Wife of Bath’s tale (which in this version includes Chaucer himself as the central love interest). However, it premiered at New York City’s Metropolitan Opera House on March 8, 1917, amid growing tensions with Germany and less than a month before America’s official entry into World War I. As a result, the opera would be cancelled after just five performances.
In contrast, the 1964 𝘊𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘺 𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴 musical, which was composed by John Hawkins and Richard Hill, featuring a more modern book and lyrics by Martin Starkie and Nevill Coghill, as well as more of Chaucer’s original characters and stories than the earlier opera, was much more successful. In March 1968, the musical premiered in its full form on London’s West End at the Phoenix Theatre where it would go on to play for a record-breaking 2,080 performances, not closing until March 1973.
📸𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘺 𝘗𝘪𝘭𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘴: 𝘈𝘯 𝘖𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢 𝘪𝘯 𝘍𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘈𝘤𝘵𝘴 bound libretto and score, M1503.D346 C35 1916
📸𝘊𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘺 𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴, Phoenix Theatre souvenir program, circa 1971, from Mary Lavigne programs collection, C0417.