Caddie Woodlawn a Musical Drama

In 1935 Carol Ryrie Brink wrote the Newbery-award winning novel, CADDIE WOODLAWN, based on the childhood of her grandmother, Caroline Woodhouse. She had collected the stories that her grandmother had often recounted of her adventures as a pioneer child settling the wilderness of Wisconsin in the mid 1800’s.

More than seventy years later, CADDIE WOODLAWN has been brought to the stage in an exuberant musical written by Susan C. Hunter and Tom Shelton. This adaptation had its world premiere at the Landers Theatre in Springfield, Missouri, having been selected as the winner of a nationwide play writing contest. It opened to critical acclaim and was enthusiastically received by Springfield audiences.

The musical has gone on to be produced all over the country, most recently in Caddie’s home town of Menomonie, Wisconsin at the Historic Mabel Tainter Theatre.

In 1991 Caddie won the Landers Theater Prize, the result of a national search for best new Family Musical. The prize included a full production at the historic Landers Theater in Springfield Missouri. (All subsequent productions of the show must carry the credit “Originally produced at the Landers Theater in Springfield Missouri.”)

Since then Caddie Woodlawn has enjoyed productions at First Stage Milwaukee, a leading professional children’s theater company; numerous community and school productions nationwide, and most recently at the Mabel Tainter Theater in Menomonie, Wisconsin. This last was notable for being the first production in the actual region where the story takes place. There is discussion of making the musical a semi-annual event in Menomonie.

Rights are held by the Samuel French company.