The Secret Garden (musical) on the adult characters to return the plot closer to the original book. A full recording of this version was released on CD by First Night Records in 2001. The Secret Garden (musical) The Secret Garden is a musical based on the 1911 novel of the same name by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The musical's script and lyrics are by Marsha Norman, with music by Lucy Simon. It premiered on Broadway in 1991 and ran for 709 performances. The story is set in the early years of the 20th century. Mary Lennox, a young English girl born and raised in the
Frances Hodgson Burnett in 1879, where she met Louisa May Alcott, and Mary Mapes Dodge, editor of children's magazine "St. Nicholas", Burnett began to write children's fiction. For the next five years she had published several short works in "St. Nicholas". Burnett continued to write adult fiction as well: "Louisiana" was published in 1880; "A Fair Barbarian" in 1881; and "Through One Administration" in 1883. She wrote the play "Esmerelda" in 1881, while staying at the "Logan House" inn near Lake Lure, North Carolina; it became the longest running play on Broadway in the 19th century. However, as had happened earlier in Knoxville,