Information

Show Credits: Lyrics by Richard Wilbur
Additional Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by Hugh Wheeler
Music by Leonard Bernstein
Additional Lyrics by John Latouche

Description: Featuring a legendary score by Leonard Bernstein, CANDIDE is perhaps the most oft revived of the classic cult musicals. Part sophisticated operetta, part wacky screwball comedy with shades of Monty Python, this funny, irreverent satire is the perfect musical expression of Voltaire's tongue-in-cheek send-up of optimistic philosophies.

In one lightning-paced act, the hapless bastard cousin Candide is expelled from home, drafted into the Bulgarian army, brought before the Spanish Inquisition, swindled out of a fortune, shipwrecked on a desert isle, and separated time and again from his true love Cunegonde, who bears with remarkable dignity a variety of carnal besmirchments by almost everybody. Through it all, Candide remembers the lesson of his dear master Dr. Pangloss: that "everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds."

Accolades/
Awards: The original 1956 show was nominated for three Tonys, including Musical. The 1974 version was nominated for seven (winning four, including Director and Book), and not being eligible for the Musical award (since it was, in effect, a revival), was given a S