The Mad Show is an Off-Broadway musical revue based on Mad magazine, with music by Mary Rodgers and a book by Larry Siegel and Stan Hart. The show's various lyricists include Siegel, Marshall Barer, Steven Vinaver, and Stephen Sondheim.[1]
Production
The revue opened on January 9, 1966, at the New Theatre, New York City, and ran for 871 performances.[1] The original cast included Linda Lavin, Jo Anne Worley, Paul Sand, Richard Libertini, and MacIntyre Dixon. Sam Pottle conducted the music.
Joe Raposo, who later became music director for Sesame Street (a job held still later by Pottle), performed onstage as the Piano Player, who was shot during the course of each performance. He was also bludgeoned with a rubber chicken. The band's drummer was Danny Epstein, who later became Sesame Street's music coordinator from 1969 to 2009.