[1] In a Maine coastal village toward the end of the 19th century, the swaggering, carefree carnival barker, Billy Bigelow, captivates and marries the naive millworker, Julie Jordan.
Billy loses his job just as he learns that Julie is pregnant and, desperately intent upon providing a decent life for his family, he is coerced into being an accomplice to a robbery.
In December 1966, he announced he bought the rights from 20th Century Fox, who made the 1956 film version.
[3] The production was originally going to last for 90 minutes, but Rosemont worried that he would not be able to keep the whole score and any of the plot, and so he expanded it to two hours.
Then in March 1967, the production was in the middle of rehearsals when it was picketed by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.