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with no one the wiser. Doc is reluctant, saying that it's too risky and won't work. Jonas demonstrates his theory on a prison rat (The Rat is Dead). The Doc finally agrees to play his part... for a five hundred dollar bribe! Jonas vows to somehow raise the money and free
Gretchen (Step Right Up - reprise).
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Jonas gets into a high-stakes poker game (The Card Game) and wins the thousand, only to be jumped, beaten and robbed by the losers . Bruised, bloody and completely broke, Jonas returns to the prison to find Deputy Warden
Piquant ready to string Gretchen up while the Warden is away at the county seat.
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Jonas comes up with a plan to save
Gretchen. When the chair is ready, he will proceed with her execution, but give her only enough voltage to knock her out. Meanwhile, he will have struck a deal with the dissolute prison doctor to pronounce her dead and persuaded Jimmy to carry her out like a cadaver
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The next evening, to satisfy his curiosity, Jonas visits
Gretchen Herzallediebst in her cell. He is smitten by her beauty and wit (Who Are You?). In return for her "favors", Jonas is persuaded to buy her some more time by hiding his chair and convincing the warden that it was stolen (Reasonable Man).
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A steamy summer morning in the rural deep South of 1918. A gang of prisoners works along the dusty roadway leading to
Fairweather State Prison (Ball and Chain). Jonas Candide, an ex-carnival barker and con-man who is now employed as the state's official "travelling executioner" arrives at the prison
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With time running out, Gretchen urges Jonas to try the local bank for the money (Do It for Me). By whipping the bank's patrons into a patriotic fervor over war bonds, he convinces the manager to give him a loan (All in this
Together). However, when the manager discovers that Jonas is an ex-con, he
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Upon arrival, Jonas learns from the warden that the woman has been granted a short stay while her lawyer tries to convince the
Governor to commute her sentence. Proceeding with Willie's execution, Jonas demonstrates his unique approach to the job (The Fields of Ambrosia). But something goes wrong
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Several months later, the prison yard is packed with guards and witnesses as Jonas
Candide is placed in the refurbished electric chair by Jimmy, the new executioner. Jimmy gets so excited as Jonas regales him with descriptions of the hereafter (The Fields of Ambrosia - reprise) that he revs the
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Jonas springs into action to raise the money to pay Doc, He smuggles the town whores into the prison late at night and, posting Jimmy as a lookout, turns Doc's infirmary into an impromptu bordello. Doc stumbles in and seeing Jonas' resourcefulness, raises his asking price to a thousand! Jonas,
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Gretchen takes her mandatory hour of exercise on the prison yard inside a huge, wire cage which protects her from the male prisoners (Hungry). Jonas arrives, and bribes the guard for a moment alone with
Gretchen to let her know of his plan to save her (Continental Sunday).
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reneges . Jonas, in a panic, makes a play for the money. With the bank alarm ringing in his ears, he beats a hasty retreat back to the prison (the getaway) to spring
Gretchen, but the escape attempt goes terribly wrong (The Breakout).
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Jonas must take the chair to the local fix-it shop for repair, where the sight of it creates quite a stir among the locals (Step Right Up). Unable to stay away, he visits Gretchen again and is seduced even further (Too Bad).
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wondering what the hell happened to his lookout, finds Jimmy completely distraught after being assaulted by some of the inmates (Alone). Moved by Jimmy's plight, Jonas makes him his new assistant.
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generator way too high. When Jimmy pulls the switch everything goes up in flame and smoke. As the smoke begins to clear, we glimpse an image of Gretchen and Jonas alone on stage, waltzing.
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with his electric chair (Hubbub). He has come to attend to his next "clients" Willie and Gretchen Herzallerliebst, brother and sister German immigrants who have been convicted of murder.
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described "a reprehensibly enjoyable new musical", saying "Often very funny in its own right, the show has a number of moments where it seems to be tone deaf to its own ridiculousness."
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said, "The score, courtesy of Martin Silvestri and Joel Higgins, is a joy, from the melodic and powerful titletrack through quality production numbers like 'Nuthin'
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and 'Step Right Up' and that is without mentioning two of the most glorious duets you are likely to encounter in the form of 'Too Bad' and 'Continental Sunday'"
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as Doc, Mark Heenehan as Malcolm Piquant, Marc Joseph as Jimmy Crawford, and Roger Leach as Warden Brodsky. The show closed after only 23 performances.
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and contains violence, sex, romance, and sentiment. It takes place in a deep rural town in the American South in 1918.
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Gretchen's lawyer, not satisfied with that, discovers the hiding place and disables the chair with a fireaxe.
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426:"THEATER; Premiere of a Musical, 'The Fields of Ambrosia' (Published 1993)"
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121:. It was performed in the
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295:Scene: That Rat is Dead/
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499:Musicals based on films
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342:The Fields of Ambrosia
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344:(reprise)
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191:Synopsis
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