The Vagabond King

Originally, producer Russell Janney planned this operatta to have a score by the youthful team of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart who had already transformed the venerable novel and play, If I Were King, into an amateur musical. When he was unable to get financial backing, however, Janney turned to the more experienced team of Rudolf Friml and Brian Hooker. The Vagabond King is concerned with the amours and adventures of the 15th Century outlaw Francois Villon (Dennis King) during the reign of King Louis XI. In this attractively mounted, picaresque tale, the poet-vagabond is appointed King of France for a day (it was a week in the original story) in order to save both his neck and Paris by leading his rabble of low degree against the Duke of Burgundy’s forces. As a fitting capper to his successful endeavors, Villon even wins the hand of the aristocratic Katherine de Vaucelles (Carolyn Thomson). There were two screen versions: King and Jeanette MacDonald were co-starred in 1930; Oreste and Kathryn Grayson in 1956. Dearest Enemy. Discovered swimming in the nude, Helen Ford keeps Charles The Vagabond King. Dennis leads his follewers in the “Song of the Vagabonds.” (White) Sunny. Esther Howard, Joseph Cawthorn, Dorothy Francis, Clifton Webb, Marilyn Miller, Paul Frawley, Mary Hay, and Jack Donahue. (White)

Music

Rudolf Friml

Lyrics

Brian Hooker

Book

Brian Hooker, Russell Janney, W. H. Post