Big Daddies

Two top theater professionals collaborated on musical charmer Daddy Long Legs.

Although Daddy Long Legs has appeared in a variety of adaptations, what you’ll see at Pittsburgh Public Theater features a lively book by John Caird, and vivacious music and lyrics by Paul Gordon. These are two contemporary theater artists with a wealth of acclaim between them.

Mr. Caird’s name will always be associated with two stage epics: Les Misérables and The Life and Times of Nicholas Nickleby, which he adapted and directed with Trevor Nunn for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Mr. Caird then received Tony Awards for the Broadway productions of this musical and play.

Mr. Caird told broadwayworld.com that Daddy Long Legs is an incredibly popular novel in Japan, and it was his Japanese wife, Maoko, who suggested it would make a good musical.

Composer Paul Gordon is attracted to spirited romantic heroines too, having written the book and score for musical adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels Sense and Sensibility and Emma. He has also penned pop hits such as “Next Time I Fall,” as well as music for film and television.

Together, Mr. Caird and Mr. Gordon wrote the musical Jane Eyre, based on the novel by Charlotte Brontë, and featuring another orphan girl. Premiering on Broadway in 2000, it was nominated for five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Book, and Original Score. When the pair turned their talents to Jean Webster’s Daddy Long Legs, they found a cheerier main character in Jerusha Abbott.

Since its 2009 debut at California’s Rubicon Theatre Company, audiences and critics have fallen in love with sweet and spunky Jerusha and her musical tale. Running Off-Broadway for almost a year (it closed in June of 2016), The New York Times described Daddy Long Legs as “a great treat,” and Variety called it “a wholesome tuner in tune with the times.” About the production in London’s West End, The Guardian said: “totally captivating… proves far more fun than many a big, blowsy spectacle.”

Daddy Long Legs also made theater history by being the first show, on or Off-Broadway, to live stream a full performance, free of charge, on any computer or mobile device. “I really believe that digital distribution of our content is the most powerful audience development tool that we’re not using,” said the musical’s producer, Ken Davenport. Shown in real time via Livestream was the Dec. 10, 2015 performance at New York’s Davenport Theatre.

But there is nothing that can replicate a live performance, as Public Theater patrons will see in Ted Pappas’ new production of Daddy Long Legs on the intimate O’Reilly stage.

“It’s an emotional growth story,” Mr. Caird said. “It has two characters in it that grow, both at the same time. Because they only meet occasionally, they have a lot to sing about. They have to share with the audience what they can’t share with each other. And that’s the essential thing about a musical: that the characters must have lots of things to sing about.”