Born Free: A New Adventure teach the lioness how to survive in the wild. In 1960, Joy Adamson published a book called "Born Free", based on her (and her husband, George Adamson) experience raising the lioness Elsa. The book was followed by two others, "Living Free" (1961) and "Forever Free" (1963). In 1966, the first book was adapted into a movie. The film was a commercial and critical success, leading to a 1969 documentary called "The Lions are Free" and then a sequel, released in 1972 and based on the third book, but using the name of the second book. In 1974, the NBC did
Ben Travers English adaptation of Franz Lehár's 1923 operetta "Der Libellentanz". The music received mild praise, but the libretto did not. The piece ran for just over three months. Travers followed "The Dippers" with another farcical novel, "A Cuckoo in the Nest", published in 1922. Again reviewers praised its humour, and again Travers turned it into a playscript. The actor Lawrence Grossmith spotted the dramatic possibilities of this story, and he acquired the performing rights to the play. Before Grossmith had time to produce the piece, he had an offer from the actor-manager Tom Walls to buy the rights. Walls was in