Original upload date: Thu, 16 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT
Archive date: Thu, 04 Nov 2021 02:07:25 GMT
"Aesop's Fables" was a rock theatrical work composed by William "Bill" Russo (1928-2003) and performed by The Free Theater, one of the seminal troupes in Chicago's Off-Loop theatre movement, founded b
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y Russo with others in 1968. The Free Theater's early signature works included the rock cantatas "The Civil War" and "Liberation" by Russo, and "David" by Russo and Robert Perrey. Aesop's Fables was composed by Russo in 1970-71 with text by Jon Swan and performed in early 1971 by The Free Theater at its then-new home at 3257 N. Sheffield Avenue. In May, it had a limited one-week run off-Broadway at the Mercer Arts Center in New York. In 1972, the work was restaged with new direction and design and after a run in Chicago, first at The Free Theater and then at Kingston Mines, it was again taken to the Mercer Arts Center where it was favorably reviewed ("Hair-like exuberance... The whole happy show is fun!") and enjoyed a two month off-Broadway run. This recording is of a 1971 performance at the Sheffield Avenue theater. Russo himself is both conducting (he can be heard giving counts, cues, direction and encouragement - "Yeah!" - to the cast and band) and playing the Farfisa organ. Featured soloists in this, the show's finale, are Frank Schoening as the Crow and Trisha Long as the Fox.
