Can somebody give me a run-down on RB's involvement in the various stage adaptations over the years of Dandelion Wine? Which ones did he adapt himself, and which ones did others adapt?

The information I have right now is that he wrote his first stage adaptation of DD in 1988. But someone else says that he wrote the 1972 stage adaptation that was performed at Cal State-Fullerton.

Walloon,

I don't know the answer to your question, but I have a couple of thoughts that might clarify matters.

Thought no 1: many of Ray's plays have been performed without the play being published in print. The copyright date in the Dramatic Publishing edition of the play is 1988, but the play might have been performed well before this date. (For example, I know the play Leviathan 99 has been performed several times, with different scripts, but it has not been published in print.)

Thought no 2: what are you sources? It may be possible to solve the mystery if one of your sources is unreliable.

My source for the 1972 date is someone who knows someone directly involved in the production.

On the whole, though, if I knew whether my sources were reliable, I wouldn't be asking this question. It's a Catch-22.

I guarantee Ray Bradbury consulted with Director Kirk Mee during rehearsals and production of the California State University, Fullerton staging of "Dandelion Wine" as a light musical. My brother played the part of whom I recall to be Douglas Spaulding's friend in that adaptation by Bradbury.
Venerable actor Michael Strong played the older Douglas Spaulding (William/Bill Forrester), and Cal State Fullerton theatre student Whitney Rydbeck, later of "Whitney and the Robot" TV fame in the Los Angeles market, portrayed another of the characters.
If I locate more information on that run, I will try to post later.
Cheers.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: GLBrodeur,

Darkness. Nothing. Only stars in the sky. Crickets. Night sounds.

Enter BILL FORRESTER with single battered suitcase. ...

So begins "Dandelion Wine," a musical adaptation based on the novel by Ray Bradbury, fifth edition, rewritten May 1967 and sixth version, January 1972 staged as a world premiere at (then) California State College, Fullerton's Department of Theatre in the CSF Little Theater at 8:30 p.m. March 10-12 and 14-19, 1972.
Author/Book: Ray Bradbury
Lyrics: Larry Alexander
Additional lyrics: Ray Bradbury
Music: Billy Goldenberg
Director: Kirk Mee
Musical director: Bill Beck
Scenic design: S. Todd Muffatti
Costume design: Dwight Richard Odle
Makeup design: Abel Zeballos
Lighting design and special effects: Darrell F. Winn
Film and projections: Teri Allen, Terry Ellmore, Don Cohen
William Forrester: Michael Strong
Junkman: Mike Baccaro
Douglas Spaulding: Keith Christman
Tom Spaulding: Sid Levin
Miss Fern: Lala Fakhimi
Miss Roberta: Jennie Romney
Colonel Freeleigh: Hal Hamilton
John Huff: Larry Brodeur
Leo Auffman: Ed Little
Tarot Witch: Wendy Deacon
Mr. Tridden: Greg Crow
Leonard Spaulding: Ron Coffman
Esther Spaulding: Rochelle Mateffy
Grandpa Spaulding: Whitney Rydbeck
Grandma Spaulding: Fran DuRivage
Ann Barclay: Amy McCue
Mr. Sanderson: Terry FitzSimmons
Great Grandma Spaulding: Vicky Burnip
Ice Man: John Gravish
Officer Hanlon: Rod Pankey
Lena Auffman: Mary E. Wilson
Soda Clerk: Bill Wolfe
The Lonely One: Stan Tudor
plus boarders and townspeople, The Boys and understudies.

JOHN HUFF bounces, dashes, flips through, bang--GONE!!

JOHN
Hey, hey, hey!

DOUGLAS
John Huff, the best friend in the world...!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: GLBrodeur,

Excellent detail, GLBrodeur. I can add to this a poster from the event itself - click on the .JPG link below (I took the photo during my recent trip to the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies).

I believe there were at least three different musical versions of DW. This one, with music/lyrics by Billy Goldenberg/Larry Alexander; another in 1988 with music/lyrics by Jimmy Webb; and a third c.2000 with music/lyrics by Jeffrey Rockwell. In all cases, the "book" (playscript) were written by RB. There have also been various non-musical stagings of DW, and it is the non-musical playscript which is available in print from Dramatic Publishing.

This latter version is the only one I have studied closely. I have looked at the scripts for the other versions, but haven't studied them closely. My impression is that they all follow the same essential story, with the Bill Forrester character becoming central to the narrative.

dw.jpg (86 Kb, 11 downloads) DW musical poster