Great to Be Alive

Great to Be Alive.

Great to Be Alive is a stage musical.

Cast

• Bambi Linn - Bonnie
• Rod Alexander - Albert
• Valerie Bettis - Kitty
• Vivienne Segal - Leslie Butterfield
• Martha Wright - Carol
• Mark Dawson - Vince
• Stuart Erwin - Woodrow Twigg
• Russell Nype - Freddie
• Earl Oxford - Butch
• Lulu Bates - Blodgett
• Paul Reed - Rafferty
• Betty Low - Prudence
• Aleen Buchanan - Maybelle
• J.C. McCord - Jake
• Jay Marshall - Crumleigh
• Don Kennedy - O'Brien
• Marjorie Peterson - Mimsey

Plot

The story takes place in a gloomy Pennsylvania mansion which the rich (and now currently divorced) Mrs. Leslie Butterfield intends to buy as a present for her niece Carol and soon-to-be husband Vince. Her interior decorator Butch has plans to restore the mansion to its former glory. But realtor Woodrow Twigg, whose ancestors once owned and lived in the mansion, forgoes truth in advertising when he fails to inform Mrs Butterfield and Butch that the place is haunted. In fact, it's awash with ghosts, but no one can see them except Woodrow and one of his friends, because only virgins can communicate with the dead

Woodrow hopes there will be a double wedding in the mansion, one for Carol and Vince, and a ghostly one for Bonnie and Albert, who never married in life because Albert was killed during the Civil War. Another prominent ghost in the proceedings is Kitty, who died during the Colonial Era and who becomes a detective of sorts when a mysterious killer murders three people (including the minister for the wedding) and Kitty's hapless descendant Woodrow is suspected of the crimes.

But all ends well. Both the live and ghostly couples wed, the ghosts continue to haunt the mansion and the amorous Mrs Butterfield sets her sights on Woodrow (and by the final scene, he can no longer see or hear the dead.)

Musical numbers

Act I

• "When the Sheets Come Back from the Laundry" - Kitty, Bonnie, Prudence, Maybelle, Albert, Jake, Crumleigh and Dancers
• "It's a Long Time Till Tomorrow" - Carol and Vince
• "Headin' for a Weddin'" - Woodrow Twig, Kitty, Bonnie, Prudence, Maybelle, Albert, Jake, Crumleigh and Dancers
• "Redecorate" - Butch
• "What a Day!" - Carol, Vince, Blodgett, Singers and Guests
• "Call It Love" - Carol and Vince
• "There's Nothing Like It" - Blodgett
• "Dreams Ago" - Carol and Vince
• "From This Day On" - Entire Company

Act II

• "Who Done It?" - Singer, Freddie, O'Brien, Rafferty, Blodgett and Guests
• "Blue Day" - Carol
• "That's a Man Everytime" - Leslie Butterfield, Mimsey, Singer and Bridesmaids
• "You Appeal to Me" - Leslie Butterfield and Woodrow Twig
• "Who Done It?" (Reprise) - Blodgett
• "Let's Have a Party " - Kitty, Prudence, Jake and Dancers
• "Call It Love" (Reprise) - Carol and Vince
• "Thank You, Mrs. Butterfield" - Wedding Guests
• "Finale" - Entire Company