Yale Dramatic Association: Tom Jones

60 years ago this week the Yale Dramatic Association was just seven months shy of the premiere of their production of an original musical based on Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones. It had already been in preproduction for over a year, and May 1959 auditions were about to give way to more October auditions. Heading the creative team were Austin Pendleton (book), Robert Archer (music), and Joseph Mathewson and Peter Bergman (lyrics). Phil Proctor played the leading role. Bergman was a Junior and Proctor was a Sophomore, and it was the first time these two future members of Firesign Theatre ever worked together. This original cast recording has been rescued and restored from a copy in the collection of Phil Proctor.

Archival detritus in the enclosed PDF includes artwork for the LP, original ads from the Yale Daily News from the week of the premiere (April 1960), Peter Bergman’s original Yale Record playbill signed by Pendleton & Mathewson & Archer, a full-page article from the New Haven Register on 5/1/1960, a handbill for the 1963 revival at Trumbull New Theatre in Youngstown Ohio, and an original Trumbull program.

Overture
Bubble Bubble
Under The Allworthy Roof
Sir Thomas
We Seagrim Clan
Sophia's Son
She Was A Maid
Get That Will
Charity
Infamy
Bright Moon Above & Quintet Finale
The Homecoming Cantata
Sunlight
The Trunk Packing Song
Battle For The Western Name
Captain Tom
Finale

Album audio & artwork

DISCLAIMER: To the best of my knowledge, this work is out of print and not available for purchase in any format. If you are the artist and are planning a reissue, please let me know and I’ll remove it from the blog. Also please get in touch if you’ve lost your art &/or sound masters and would like to talk with me about my restoration work.