The Magic Show: History and Key Facts

The Magic Show is a one-act musical with a score by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Bob Randall, starring magician Doug Henning. Produced by Edgar Lansbury, Joseph Beruh, and Ivan Reitman, it opened on Broadway on May 28, 1974 at the Cort Theatre, where it ran for 1,920 performances, closing on December 31, 1978. Henning was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical and director Grover Dale was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical.

The show originally began life as Spellbound, produced by Reitman with a book by David Cronenberg and music by Howard Shore. That version premiered at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto in 1973, starring Henning and Jennifer Dale. When Reitman took it to New York, the book and score were entirely replaced, but Henning's illusions and magic tricks remained unchanged.

The Magic Show was a rare Broadway musical with a star who could neither sing nor dance. As composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz told critic Peter Filichia, "This wasn't the case of writing for a star, but writing around a star."

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