The Muny , short for The Municipal Opera Association of St. Louis , is an outdoor musical amphitheatre, located in Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri. The theater seats 11,000 people with approximately 1,500 free seats in the last nine rows that are available on a first come, first served basis. [1] The Muny completed its 90th annual season in the summer of 2008 with more than 377,000 audience members attending. The Muny seasons run every year from mid-June to mid-August. It is run by a not-for-profit organization. The current president and chief executive is Dennis M. Reagan. The current executive producer is Paul Blake.

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History of The Muny

In 1914 Luther Ely Smith who would be the "founder" of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial began staging Pageant-Masques on Art Hill in Forest Park. ^[2]

In 1916 a grassy area between two oak trees on the present site of the The Muny was chosen for a production of As You Like It produced by Margaret Anglin and starring Sydney Greenstreet with a local cast of "1,000 St. Louis folk dancers and folk singers." ^[3]

Soon after, the Convention Board of the St. Louis Advertising Club found itself without any entertainment feature for its thirteenth annual convention, which was to take place June 3, 1917. Mayor Henry Kiel, attorney Guy Golterman, and Parks Commissioner Nelson Cunliff stepped in and, in forty-nine days (not counting seven lost to rain), created the first municipally-owned outdoor theatre in America. On June 5, 1917 the opera Aida was presented on what would be the Muny stage.

In 1919, the new theatre received a name: The Municipal Opera Association of St. Louis, or The Muny for short. The first show under the Muny banner was Robin Hood , which opened on June 16, 1919, and featured Mayor Kiel as King Richard.

In 1930, the stage was equipped with a turntable for performance purposes. This would be reconstructed in 1997 because of dilapidation. In 1994, The Muny's Board of Directors founded The Muny Kids, a select group of performers from the ages of 7 to 13 who would travel around St. Louis performing, and in the summer would give preview shows prior to the production. In 1998 The Muny Teens group was formed for the same purpose, featuring teen performers from the ages of 14 to 18.

The Chairman of the Board of the Muny in 2005-2006 was William H.T. Bush (younger brother of former President George H.W. Bush). ^[4]The current Chairman of the Board is Richard G. Millman.

A Muny Production

The Muny produces all of its musicals (typically seven) in the season and operates only in the summer. During the winter, a staff of twelve prepare for the approaching summer season. All shows are rehearsed within the course of eleven days, with a tech rehearsal being held from midnight to five o'clock on the Sunday morning before the show. Shows run from Monday to Sunday, although there have been exceptions to this, particularly in recent years where each season has had at least one production that enjoys an extended run of nine to eleven performances.

Comparison to other outdoor theatres

The Muny website claim it is the "nation's oldest and largest outdoor theatre." ^[5]

There are numerous amphitheatres/outdoor theatres that are much larger in the United States including the Hyundai Pavilion which claims to be the biggest in the United States (with a total capacity of 65,000 consisting of 10,902 seats and 54,098 in the grass). The Hollywood Bowl (opened in 1929) has seats for 17,376. Nikon at Jones Beach Theater (opened in 1952) has seating for 15,000. However most of the larger venues have rotating concerts and individual events rather than musicals.

The Muny is larger than the two other large Missouri amphitheatres -- Starlight Theatre (Kansas City) opened in 1925 has capacity of 8,105 and the Shepherd of the Hills Old Mill Theatre in Branson, Missouri (which opened in 1960), which has a capacity of 2,000 ^[6]

For a list of other amphitheatres see: List of contemporary amphitheatres.

Celebrities at The Muny

Since its beginning, The Muny has featured many big names in theatre and film on its stage, drawing inevitably huge crowds. Here are a few of those big names, along with their claims to fame:

• W.C. Fields - comedian
• James Taylor - singer
• Stevie Nicks - singer
• Vincent Price - horror film actor
• Cary Grant - film actor
• Bob Hope - comedian
• Glen Campbell - singer
• Joel Grey - reprised his award-winning performance in Cabaret
• Carol Burnett - comedian, actress
• Eddie Albert - actor
• Lauren Bacall - actress
• Pearl Bailey - actress
• Betty White - actress
• Red Skelton - comedian
• Patti Labelle - singer
• Milton Berle - comedian
• Ethel Merman - actress
• Ken Page - Broadway performer (originated roles such as Old Deuteronomy)
• Ozzie Smith - St. Louis Cardinals Hall-of-Famer; father of American Idol star Nikko Smith
• Carol Channing - actress
• Yul Brynner - reprised the role of the King in The King and I
• Howard Keel - film actor
• Margaret Hamilton - film actress (played Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz )
• Shoshana Bean - has played as Elphaba in the Broadway cast of Wicked (got her Equity card at The Muny)
• Joel Grey - Broadway performer (originated roles such as the Emcee in Cabaret and the Wizard of Oz in Wicked
• Pamela Isaacs- Broadway actress; appeared in original Broadway cast of The Life , for which she won a Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Musical
• Simone - daughter of Nina Simone; originated roles in Rent and on first national tour of Aida
• Kendra Kassebaum - played Galinda in the Broadway cast of Wicked

2008 Season

June 16-22 - The Producers

June 23-July 2 - Disney's High School Musical Subscription performance dates are June 23 through June 29 with additional performance dates June 30 through July 2.

July 7-13 - My Fair Lady

July 14-20 - 90 Years Of Muny Magic, a musical review celebrating of all the great music of the last 90 seasons.

July 21-27 - Miss Saigon

July 28-August 3 - My One and Only

August 4-10 - Fiddler on the Roof

Future seasons

The new Muny season is not officially announced until the preceding January or February, but many have found it entertaining to speculate on what shows will be produced, especially since The Muny follows certain patterns when selecting its shows.

The best way for an outsider to guess the next season is to fill out the evaluation forms handed out at the end of the current season's run, which allow audiences to circle their top seven choices for the next year. The choices change each year, depending on what shows are available and what shows have not been produced for a number of years.

See also

• The Muny Repertory