I Married Wyatt Earp
Suggested in part by the book "I Married Wyatt Earp" by Glenn G. Boyer

This “creative nonfiction” musical is based on the historical events of the American West, and boasts an all-female cast of 11 members.  With a rousing, wide-ranging score that ranges from pop to countrywestern to Victorian dance hall songs, I Married Wyatt Earp traces the true-life tale of Josephine Marcus, who escaped her stifling upper-class San Francisco Jewish family by bluffing her way into a Gilbert & Sullivan troupe en route to Tombstone, Arizona in the late 1800s.  There she met the love of her life—Wyatt Earp—and plunged into a tumult of scandals and outrage that led to the notorious and deadly Shootout at the OK Corral.  As Wyatt’s widow, an 81-year-old Josie drags her vendetta against 90-year-old Allie Earp (widow of Wyatt’s brother Virgil) from the 1880’s into 1943 as they struggle their way toward reconciliation and ultimately, forgiveness.

Historical Note
The story of Wyatt Earp, his brothers, and Doc Holliday has become American Legend. Almost all of the characters depicted in I Married Wyatt Earp are based on real people.  After the discovery of silver in the nearby mountains, Tombstone, Arizona was a booming town in 1879, and yet within a few short years, the entire place became practically deserted.  During its heyday, Tombstone produced over $80 million dollars of silver within ten years; the town had approximately 12,000 men and only 860 women, mostly prostitutes, schoolmarms, and few assorted wives.  The political and socio-economic events which led up to the Shootout at the OK Corral have been dramatized in over 54 movies and 13 television shows, but the story of the unconquerable, gutsy women in Tombstone who loved and lived with these lawmen and outlaws has never been told. This is an attempt to recreate their story.

Authors’ Note
I Married Wyatt Earp: the Recollections of Josephine Sarah Marcus by Glenn Boyer first attracted bookwriter and lyricist Sheilah Rae’s attention when she was skimming another book called Pioneer Jews by Harriet and Fred Rochlin.  In a chapter called ‘Humdingers’, she ran across the scandalous (for the 1880’s) photograph of Josie Marcus.  Reading about Josie’s adventurous life, Sheilah immediately decided that this was indeed the ‘stuff of musicals’!  In researching the period and these characters, cobookwriter Thomas Edward West and Sheilah realized how little had changed in the world for women:  they are still victims of abuse and drug addiction, still live in fear of their men coming home safely.  And, of course, the time period was attractive to composer Michele Brourman, because of the enormous palette of musical colors the period offered: western, folk, G&S, saloon songs, Americana.  The writing team set out to create the telling of a unique story, but chose to tell it through the women’s eyes only, so as not to compete with the many versions of the Earp myth that already existed — hopeful that telling this story from the women’s perspective would shed a new light on the contribution of women to the development of the West, a story rarely told.

Production History

Fully-Staged Productions:

• California State University, October-November 2007; directed by Eve Himmelheber, featuring Marcia Rodd and Nancy Jeris

•  Bristol Riverside Theatre, Bristol PA, Fall 2005. Edward Keith Baker, Director and Artistic Dir., featuring Leila Martin and Diane Findlay

• The Hartt School, University of Hartford, Developmental Production. April 2004, directed by Alan Rust.

Readings and Staged Readings:

• The Los Angeles Festival of New American Musicals and ASCAP, Concert Reading May 2008, directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman, starring Carol Lawrence and Carole Cook, Brentwood Theater, Los Angeles.

• New York Theatre Barn, Staged Reading, summer 2007, directed by Graciela Daniele and starring Tovah Feldshuh and Cass Morgan (at left), Players Theater, New York.

• Musical Futures, Greenwich Theatre, London, May 2005; Staged Reading, featuring Lynda Baron.

• Falcon Theatre, Burbank, CA “SummerSeries New Musical” August 1999; directed by Josephine R. Abady, featuring Marion Ross and Jaye P. Morgan.

• Berkshire Theatre Festival, Stockbridge, MA and ASCAP-New York, Staged Concert Reading, August 1997-Josephine R. Abady, Dir. featuring Cass Morgan and Kerry O'Malley; produced by ASCAP/Stage One of Wichita/BTF.

• ASCAP/Disney Workshop- Disney Studio, Los Angeles, CA; Reading, February 1997-Abady, Dir.

• Mariposa Theater, Los Angeles, CA.- Reading, August 1995. Abady, Dir.

• The Tennessee Rep, Nashville - Summer Musical Theater Workshops; Reading August 1994; Mac Pirkle, Producer; Josephine R. Abady, Dir.

• The Tennessee Rep, Nashville - Summer Musical Theater Workshops; Reading August 1996., Mac Pirkle, Producer; Abady, Dir.

Concert Versions:

• Marin County JCC, San Rafael, CA. Concert of Songs from the show, March 1998.Part of the series, “Growing Up Jewish in America”- invited to discuss the life and times of San Francisco socialite, Josephine Sarah Marcus. Score performed by writers and guest artist, Kerry O’Malley as Josie.

• Tanque Verde Ranch, Tucson, AZ. Concert of Songs from the show, Nov. 2003.

• Michele Brourman in Concert - Eighty-Eights, New York City.

• ASCAP/Johnny Mercer Awards Concert - UCLA Auditorium, Michele Brourman.