The Frogs
Book by Burt Shevelove (1974)
Additional material by Nathan Lane (2004)
Based on The Frogs by Aristophanes
The Notion
"The time is the present, the place is Ancient Greece. Dionysos, god of wine and drama, is in despair at the state of the world and decides that what it needs is a great dramatist to rouse mankind from its moral torpor. The writer he is passionate about is George Bernard Shaw, and he takes as his mission a journey to the Underworld to bring Shaw back from the dead and have him write more great plays on earth."
- Stephen Sondheim in Finishing the Hat -
Music
Act One
Prologos: Invocation and Instructions to the Audience
I Love to Travel
Dress Big*
All Aboard!*
Ariadne*
Parados: The Frogs
*added for the 2004 Broadway revival
Act Two
Hymnos: Hymn to Dionysos
Paean: Hades*
Paean: Evoe! For the Dead**
Parabasis: It's Only a Play
Shaw*
Fear No More
All Aboard! (Reprise)*
Exodos: The Sound of Poets (Hymn to Dionysos [Reprise])
Final Instructions to the Audience*
**omitted after the original 1974 production
Albums
Productions & Casts
Awards
No major award nominations