Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles
available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Kismet is a
musical written in 1953 by Robert Wright and George Forrest, adapted
from the music of Alexander Borodin, and produced by Charles Lederer.
The story was adapted from the book by Charles Lederer and Luther Davis,
based on Kismet, the play by Edward Knoblock. The musical was
commissioned by Edwin Lester, founder and director of the Los Angeles
Civic Light Opera, and the production premiered in Los Angeles in 1953
before it moved to New York City. The Broadway production premiered on
December 3, 1953 at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York. Directed by Albert
Marre, with sumptuous settings and costumes by Lemuel Ayers, the show
opened in the midst of a newspaper strike and, despite the sparsity of
reviews, ran for a successful run of 583 performances. The strike, which
allowed the show to become a hit through word-of-mouth, may have been a
blessing since the reviews were not all favorable.
