Kismet (musical) London's West End and has been given several revivals. A 1955 film version was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The musical was commissioned by Edwin Lester, founder and director of the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, who conceived of a musical based on the 1911 play "Kismet" by Edward Knoblock. Lester had previously produced "Song of Norway", with the same composing team, adapting the melodies of Edvard Grieg. For "Kismet", the writers seized upon the melodies of Alexander Borodin, which they felt had a suitable exotic flavor and lush melodies. "Kismet" is set in a fictional Baghdad in the times of "The
The Light in the Piazza (musical) and regrets as well. The score breaks from the 21st century tradition of pop music on Broadway by moving into the territory of Neoromantic classical music and opera, with unexpected harmonic shifts and extended melodic structures, and is more heavily orchestrated than most Broadway scores. Many of the lyrics are in Italian or broken English, as many of the characters are fluent only in Italian. "The Light in the Piazza" was developed as a musical at the Intiman Playhouse in Seattle in June 2003 and then at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago in early 2004. After 36 previews, the Broadway