About the Play:

The Light in the Piazza is a full-length musical with book by Craig Lucas and music and lyrics by Adam Guettel. An American mother and daughter with a secret visit Florence in the 1950s, where the daughter falls in love with a young Italian man against the mother's wishes. This musical adaptation of the Elizabeth Spencer novella went on to become a Broadway hit.

The Light in the Piazza is a glorious musical story set in Italy in the summer of 1953. A middle-aged housewife, Margaret, is touring the Tuscan countryside with her mentally challenged daughter, Clara. While sightseeing, Clara has a chance encounter with Fabrizio, a handsome young Italian man who speaks little English, and they fall in love. Margaret finds herself torn between her daughter’s happiness and her family’s more practical plans for Clara's life. She tries to keep them apart to protect her daughter, who isn't what she seems. But the romance of Italy is powerful, and it slowly transforms them all, with an unsettling revelation.

The Light in the Piazza premiered at the Intiman Theatre in Seattle and and then at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago in early 2004. The Broadway production opened in 2005 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in Lincoln Center and won six Tonys and five Drama Desk Awards. Since then it has been produced to critical acclaim at major regional theatres across the United States and Canada.

Cast: 4 female, 4 male plus ensemble

What people say:

"The most intensely romantic score of any Broadway musical since West Side Story. Encouragingly ambitious." — New York Times

"Sumptuous and romantic…a genuine expense of spirit. The Light in the Piazza offers a complex contemplation of the well-defended emptiness of every man and woman. It doesn't just want theatergoers to feel good; it wants to make them feel deeply. And it does." — New Yorker

"The Light in the Piazza beautifully captures the eternal allure of Italy. The story wraps itself around your heart. Guettel has written several songs of breathtaking emotional depth and poetic beauty." — Chicago Sun-Times

About the Playwright:

Craig Lucas is an American screenwriter, performer, stage and film director, and award-winning playwright. A Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony nominee, his honours include the L.A. Drama Critics Award, two OBIE Awards, and the Excellence in Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Adam Guettel is an American composer and lyricist living in New York City. Accolades include the Stephen Sondheim Award, the ASCAP New Horizons Award, and the American Composers Orchestra Award.