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A canopy of green spreads gracefully over a stage half the size of a football field. In front
of it stretch nearly 11,000 seats, arranged in a gentle 52-foot rake. Each evening from mid-
June through mid-August, the lights blaze, the music swells and a dervish of dancers defy
the laws of gravity. It’s a St. Louis institution. A tradition for 94 summers. It’s The Muny.
The love of good theatre on a grand scale seems to have been part of the St. Louis psyche
from the outset: In 1916, actress Margaret Anglin selected the site of the present day
Muny for an outdoor production of
As You Like It
. The show featured a “community
prologue,” giving more than 200 St. Louisans a chance to perform. The show was a critical
and popular success.
In 1917, the Convention Board of the St. Louis Advertising Club decided to proceed with
plans to host in June the 13th Annual Convention of Advertising Clubs of the World. As
late as April 10 there was no entertainment feature for the convention, which would open
June 3. Attorney Guy Golterman, Parks Commissioner Nelson Cunliff and Mayor Henry
Kiel set the wheels in motion that would lead to the construction of an outdoor theatre
in Forest Park. The first municipally-owned outdoor theatre in America was built in 49
days, minus seven days lost to rain. The grand opera
Aida
was presented on June 5, 1917.
By 1919, a charter had been formed naming the outdoor theatre: The Municipal Theatre
Association. On June 16, 1919,
Robin Hood
was presented as the first show performed
under “The Muny” banner.
Since that summer of 1919, when Robin Hood and his band of merry musicians first trod
the venerable boards, St. Louis has considered The Muny its own theatre. That tradition
may have been established by then-mayor Kiel, who demonstrated his support of the
fledgling enterprise by making his stage debut in that first production as King Richard.
Through the decades, The Muny has played host to some of the biggest names in show
business: Vincent Price, CaryGrant,W. C. Fields, BobHope, EthelMerman, CabCalloway,
Pearl Bailey, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Phyllis Diller, John Travolta, Angela Lansbury, Betty
White, Sarah Jessica Parker, and a constellation of other stars. The Muny has produced
and presented grand operas, operettas, concerts, ballet troupes and Broadway musicals.
Its current fame rests on the latter, with St. Louisans justly proud of the elaborate and
professionally-staged classic Broadway musicals presented on The Muny stage, unrivalled
by any theatre anywhere!
But while The Muny’s fame has rested solidly on its fabulous productions, it seems that
there is more than show biz behind its success. Native St. Louisan, Muny veteran and
popular actress Mary Wickes put this mystique very well: “...You young lovers take notice
– there is no more romantic setting than The Muny on a warm summer night, full moon,
that great orchestra playing and a golden-voiced tenor singing...Trust me. It’s as close to
heaven as some of us will get!”
A HISTORY OF THE MUNY
2
SUMMER PROGRAM 2012