Robin Hood finished as Best Musical in the national Stanley Drama Award, which judges from some 200 dramas, comedies, and musicals. It began as a commissioned project of the Washington’s Crossing Open Air Theater, which features 800 raked seats in a natural amphitheatre with a pond to one side, a stream running under the orchestra pit, and a forest climbing behind the stage…a perfect setting for a Sherwood Forest musical. I was asked to write the book, but at the last minute the composer backed out, and I wrote an entire musical part-time in six weeks. It played to sold-out houses in 1992. I picked it up again, profiting from the “workshop” first production, and revised it in 2002. This is the result.

The basic look of Robin Hood, no matter the size of the stage, should be intimate rather than spectacular. This is a musical about ‘little people’ struggling against oppression to gain their rights.
This work is written in traditional Broadway musical comedy style. To be successful, the broad humor must be played seriously rather than winking at the audience. The earliest manuscript featuring Robin Hood is ca. 1450 A.D. However, the character is believed to have arisen around 1140 A.D. in response to the oppression of the Norman conquerors over the Anglo-Saxons following the Battle of Hastings in 1066 A.D. Today, the legend is closely tied to King Richard I and his absence for the Third Crusade, which was ca. 1190. The music of this period was primitive and is alien to contemporary ears. A simple, rather naïve stylization of period music is substituted to suggest a long-bygone age without overly challenging or alienating the audience. Likewise, rather than true Middle English, a few archaic words and some antiquated speech patterns are used to suggest the distant past. If possible, English accents should be used, except for Prince John, whose French should emulate the French soldiers’ clipped and nasal style in Monty Python and the Holy Grail with a touch of Peter Sellers’ Inspector Clouseau.

Robin Hood is intended to appeal to a family audience (age 9 to adult), to operate with a straightforward plot and simple language style but to give the adults some entertainment with slightly more sophisticated humor and emotional journeys. Directorially, the light and gay should dominate over the dark and morose, even though they are juxtaposed. Hope dominates; justice triumphs.

In keeping with a concept of intimacy, orchestration has been limited to 12 musicians. These are:

1 flute
1 oboe
1 bassoon
1 French horn
1 percussionist (drum set, triangles, cow bells, cymbals, kettle drums)
1 keyboardist (harpsichord, lute, string doubling)
3 violins
1 viola
2 cellos

The music is written simple enough that an amateur orchestra may play it. This musical was designed to be performable by a typical high school-level drama/musical group.

The script indicates that members of the cast play tambourine, triangle, lute, cow’s horn, etc.. This can be done by proxy from the pit, if only for added control.

If, by virtue of the performance space or electronic amplification, recorders are desired in place of flute and/or oboe, this is fine. Instruments may be substituted or omitted, but the feel of the piece will be damaged by expansion to more than a small chamber orchestra.

While use of real instruments in performance is strongly recommended, the emerging quality of sampled sound in keyboards allows added richness to a production without the labor or expense of finding many musicians, especially for instruments sparingly used. Therefore, it would be beneficial to employ a keyboard instrument with the capability of harpsichord, 6-string guitar or lute, and chamber strings to augment the ensemble numbers (such as a Roland or Kurzweil). The harp may also be substituted for certain lines to good effect. If kettledrums cannot be secured, some keyboards may serve here as well.

This musical emphasizes choral/ensemble pieces, to give a maximum number of performers stage time. The chorus songs are simple, largely homophonic with some counterpoint.

To maintain the spirit of intimacy, Robin Hood should not have a grand opera vocal ensemble. The optimal cast would contain 12-16 men and 8-10 women, including all leads. If practicable, children can be incorporated in Act I, Scene 3 (to be dismissed at end of Act I).

All music in Robin Hood is original with the exception of I Sing of a Maiden. This piece was composed by Charles F. Waters and is one of the most beautiful anthems of the 15th century. Even though the music was written in the Renaissance rather than Medieval period of the Robin Hood legend, its message fits perfectly for the purpose in the musical. Moreover, both periods had a rife tradition of borrowing famous tunes for other purposes. For example, with contrafacta, secular melodies were borrowed and given sacred texts for religious usage. Finally, it is hoped that the hearing of such exquisite music by the audience will inspire them to explore music of the Medieval and Renaissance European periods. In the playbill, credit must be given to ‘Charles F. Waters/15th century.’