Original Cast: Philemon

This 1975 musical, written by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt (The Fantasticks, 110 in the Shade and I Do! I Do!), was an award winner in the 1970s but has been nearly forgotten because of its limited-edition pressing as an LP. In 2019 Harbinger gave it a digitally remastered transformation.

Jones, then 91 and still writing for the stage, said: “I think Philemon may well be the most interesting show Harvey and I ever created. It has a strong story and a haunting score, and it takes the musical theater form into places it had never been before.” His inspiration for the musical was a passage in Allardyce Nicoll's book Masks, Mimes and Miracles, about a Roman clown who, during the reign of Diocletian, impersonated a Christian leader and slowly turned into the man he was impersonating.

Dick Latessa won an Obie Award as Cockian, the clown who becomes Philemon, and the musical itself won the Outer Critics Award as best of the season. The following year, it became a PBS special on Hollywood Television Theatre.

The release contains a booklet with notes by Jones, drawings by Schmidt, and recently unearthed photos of the original production. 

Track Listing 

1. Within This Empty Space
2. The Streets of Antioch Stink
3. Don't Kiki Me
4. I'd Do Almost Anything To Get Out of Here and Go Home
5. He's Coming - Antioch Prison
6. Name: Cockian
7. I Love Order
8. My Secret Dream
   
9. I Love His Face
10. Sometimes
11. The Nightmare
12. The Greatest of These
13. The Confrontation: How Free I Feel - Oh, How Easy to Be Scornful - Come With Me
14. The Vision: The Greatest of These (Reprise) - Within This Empty Space (Reprise)
15. I Believe in Music
16. The Clown Scene
17. Sometimes - There Must Be More Than This