Abraham!

2003 · Theatre in the Park, Lincoln's New Salem Historic Site

Abraham! is a musical play by Ken Bradbury and Robert L. Crowe dramatizing Abraham Lincoln's formative years in New Salem, Illinois, from 1831 to 1836. The story opens with the young Lincoln poling a flatboat down the Sangamon River — only to run aground on the mill dam at New Salem — and follows the years he spent in that frontier village, working its stores, joining its volunteers, and finding the relationships and experiences that would shape the man he became. As the playwrights note in the program, "Although this play was researched for historical accuracy, it was necessary to compress years, events and characterizations to create a 2-hour segment."

By 2003 the show had become something of an institution. Staged outdoors each July on the New Salem stage at Theatre in the Park, this was its seventh season — "the longest-running show in Central Illinois," as Bradbury wrote to his cast, many of whom had been with the production since it opened. The 2003 run was presented by The National Bank of Petersburg and played July 18–20 and 25–27.

What survives most vividly in the archive are the cast notes Bradbury wrote between performances — affectionate, funny, and exacting. They record dam crashes and muddy feet, raccoons in the chips during Act I, blackbirds circling the stage during "The Freedom Wind," tipsy doctors at the Springfield Hilton, and an elderly woman who grabbed his hand before the show and said, "I've waited to see this show all my life." Of the cast's long run together he wrote: "the show has a smoothness, a spontaneity, a fluidity that is simply not achieved in community theatre... I think that when we get too old to do this, Abraham will be one of those huge accomplishments we can all look back upon."

Musical Numbers

Act I

Roll Up the Sangamon — Greg, Luke and Nathan
The Freedom Wind — Nathan
Good To Be Free — Cast
Lonely River — Kristin and Nathan
The Sangamon Volunteers — Cast
The Freedom Wind (reprise) — Nathan

Act II

Mud Blues — Bob
Mother's Lament — Phyllis and Greg
You Gotta Dig Deeper — Greg and Luke
Temperance Rally Rag — Laurie and Cast
That's the Way To Get Ahead — Cast
The Freedom Wind (reprise) — Nathan and Cast

Cast

Abraham Lincoln — Nathan Carls
Man on raft, Bowling Green, Ferguson, etc. — Greg Floyd
Denton Offutt, Jack Kelso, Jack Armstrong, etc. — Bob Large
Mrs. Warburton, Temperance lady, etc. — Sandra Fritz
Woman on platform, mother, etc. — Phyllis Hoover
Man on raft, Mentor Graham, etc. — Victor Holstein
Woman on platform, Ann Rutledge, etc. — Kristin Van Aken

Production Notes

Written by Ken Bradbury and Robert L. Crowe; directed by Ken Bradbury.
Setting: New Salem, Illinois, 1831–1836.
Venue: Theatre in the Park, on the outdoor stage at Lincoln's New Salem Historic Site.
2003 performances: July 18–20 and 25–27, presented by The National Bank of Petersburg. This was the show's seventh season.
The playwrights credited the Heritage Cultural Center of Jacksonville and the staff of Lincoln's New Salem Historic Site. Bradbury and Crowe wrote fourteen plays together, five of them musicals, and shared the Lincoln Library Author of the Year award for Vachel, With a V.
Nathan Carls returned for his fifth season in the title role; Kristin Van Aken had played Ann Rutledge since the show first opened. Sandra Fritz joined the cast after the injury of original member Marian Levin, the production's "Grande Dame of Theatre," who later praised the show's flow: "It just flows from scene to scene so naturally. It is an even better show."