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PAINT YOUR WAGON – ENCORES! CAST RECORDING (2015)

PAINT YOUR WAGON – ENCORES! CAST RECORDING (2015)

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Synopsis

In California in May 1853, Ben Rumson strikes gold and establishes a community in his own name. The show follows the progress of the town as hundreds of men come to dig for gold. There are two subplots: the first focuses on the romance between Ben’s daughter Jennifer and Julio, a miner  forced to live outside the town because he is Mexican; and the second involves the arrival of a Mormon (Jacob) and his two wives (Sarah and Elizabeth), one of whom Ben “buys” in order to free from her abusive marriage.

After eighteen months, the gold has run dry and the miners move on.  But Jennifer and Julio stay to make a new life, counseled by Rumson who realizes that after violating nature and stealing the earth’s riches it’s time to settle down and farm the land rather than resume the search for gold.  Thus the story depicts the birth, flourishing, death and rebirth of a town over a fixed period of time, an ambitious concept for a Broadway musical.