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Original Playbill

Look to the Lilies is a musical with a book by Leonard Spigelgass, lyrics by Sammy Cahn, and music by Jule Styne.

Based on the novel and subsequent film Lilies of the Field, it tells the story of an impoverished group of German nuns, headed by dauntless Mother Superior Maria, who coerce on-the-lam African American Homer Smith to build a chapel for the New Mexico community in which they live.

Styne composed his score with Ethel Merman in mind, but director Joshua Logan cast Shirley Booth instead. Sammy Davis, Jr.'s salary demands put him out of the running, and the role of Homer went to Al Freeman, Jr., whom Logan later described as "difficult" and "antagonistic."

After 31 previews, the Broadway production appropriately opened on Easter Sunday, March 29, 1970 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, where it ran for only 25 performances. In addition to Booth and Freeman, the cast included Taina Elg, Carmen Alvarez, Maria Di Dia, Gary Gendell, Marian Haraldson, Patti Karr, Maggie Task, and Maggie Worth.

It proved to be the last musical for Booth, who garnered unanimous raves from the critics. They also praised designer Jo Mielziner's use of desert tones, projections, scrims, and lighting to create the atmosphere and mood of the desert Southwest, but found little else of merit in the show.

Act I

• Gott is Gut
• First Class Number One Bum
• Himmlisher Vater
• Follow the Lamb
• Don't Talk About God
• When I Was Young
• Meet My Seester
• One Little Brick at a Time
• To Do a Little Good
• There Comes a Time
• Why Can't He See
• I'd Sure Like to Give It a Shot

Act II

• Them and They
• Does It Really Matter
• Look to the Lilies
• I Admire You Very Much Mr. Schmidt
• Some Kind of Man
• Chant
• Casamagordo, New Mexico
• Follow the Lamb (Reprise)
• One Little Brick at a Time (Reprise)
• I, Yes Me, That's Who

Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops by Ken Mandelbaum, published by St. Martin's Press (1991), pages 29-31 (ISBN 0-312-06428-4)

Internet Broadway Database listing