Book byCraig Lucas
Music and Lyrics byAdam Guettel
Based on the novel byElizabeth Spencer
Directed byBartlett Sher

Beaumont Theater

THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA brought together the talents of Adam Guettel (music and lyrics) and Craig Lucas (book) in this adaptation of Elizabeth Spencer's novella of the same name. The score by Adam Guettel (Floyd Collins, Saturn Returns) is romantic and passionate with music and lyrics that reveal the feelings of all of the characters in soaring melodies.

THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA takes place in Italy in the summer of 1953. Margaret Johnson, the wife of a well-heeled American businessman, is touring the Tuscan countryside with her daughter, Clara. While sightseeing, Clara, a beautiful, surprisingly childish young woman, loses her hat in a sudden gust. As if guided by an unseen hand, the hat lands at the feet of Fabrizio Naccarelli, a handsome Florentine, who returns it to Clara. This brief episode, charged with coincidence and fate, sparks an immediate and intense romance between Clara and Fabrizio.

Margaret, extremely protective of her daughter, attempts to keep Clara and Fabrizio apart. As THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA unfolds, a secret is revealed: in addition to the cultural differences between the young lovers, Clara is not quite all that she appears. Unable to suppress the truth about her daughter, Margaret is forced to reconsider not only Clara's future, but her own hopes as well.