Camelot on Broadway

Based on “The Once and Future King” by T.H. White, CAMELOT, Lerner and Loewe’s 1960 follow up to My Fair Lady, is a story about the quest for democracy, striving for justice, and the tragic struggle between passion and aspiration, between lovers and kingdoms. This epic and timely tale features the iconic characters King Arthur, Queen Guenevere, and Sir Lancelot as well as the beloved original score with lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe which includes “If Ever I Would Leave You,” “What Do the Simple Folk Do?” and the title song “Camelot.”

What do the simple folk do? They get tickets to the latest revival of Camelot, the classic Lerner and Loewe musical newly revised by Oscar winner Aaron Sorkin. Set an alert for Camelot tickets on TodayTix.

The Camelot musical is adapted from the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. All seems perfect after Arthur, Queen Guenevere, and the Knights usher in a new era of fair, noble leadership. But suddenly, the knight Lancelot arrives to threaten Arthur's marriage, and Arthur's estranged son Mordred to threaten his claim to the throne. Can Arthur uphold his duty and his love while ensuring Camelot survives?

Camelot, which premiered on Broadway in 1960, was Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's highly anticipated follow-up to their most beloved show, My Fair Lady. Camelot received mixed reviews, but it won four Tony Awards, including Best Leading Actor in a Musical for Richard Burton. (Julie Andrews, who played Guenevere, was also nominated for Best Actress.) Since its premiere, the show has been repeatedly revised and is now an equally beloved part of Lerner and Loewe's canon.

The latest revision for the 2023 revival is a new book by Aaron Sorkin. Most recently, Sorkin adapted Harper Lee's classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird into a critically acclaimed Broadway play, and he's also known for writing films including The Social Network (earning him an Oscar) and TV shows including The West Wing.

Don't wait until the lusty month of May — set an alert for tickets to Camelot in New York now.

What to Watch For

• Camelot is adapted from T. H. White's The Once and Future King, which in turn is inspired by Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, the first unified literary work about King Arthur.
• Sorkin has had three plays on Broadway, but Camelot marks his musical writing debut.
• The Kennedys are often associated with the Camelot musical, in part because they were huge fans. And notably, after JFK's death, Jackie Kennedy compared his administration to the ideal Camelot, and it stuck.
• The very first performance of Camelot, which was supposed to run two and a half hours, ended up going for much longer (Lerner wrote four and a half in his memoir, though that might be an exaggeration). The show underwent a lot of editing before it became a success.
• Camelot was adapted into a film in 1967. When the stage musical was revived on Broadway in 1980, Lerner used his screenplay for the production, rather than his original stage script.