Adapted from Homer’s 11th Century BC epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey, The Golden Apple however, takes place at the turn of the 20th Century, in Washington State, near Mt. Olympus, in the small town of Angel’s Roost. Everyone is thrown into confusion when Menelaus’s wife, Helen, runs off with a traveling salesman (in town to judge an apple pie contest) named Paris. Ulysses, just returned from the Spanish- American War, is already restless and goes to retrieve Helen, leaving his wife Penelope for a ten-year adventure. Entirely through-sung, in styles ranging from operetta to calypso to jazz (“Lazy Afternoon”), The Golden Apple was one of the very first musicals to open Off-Broadway. This mash-up of eras, styles and locales transferred to Broadway only a month later and won the 1955 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical.
