[3] In the musical number "If I Had a Million Dollars", the ghetto children ponder what they would do with the money and express "tightwad selfishness to outrageous spending sprees.
Directed by Robert H. Livingston with musical staging by Patricia Birch, the cast included a young Irene Cara as Lillie Mae, Hattie Winston as Nell, Beverly Bremers (at the time credited as Beverly Ann Bremers) as Catherine, and Northern J. Calloway.
The adaptation by director Robert H. Livingston and additional lyricist Herb Schapiro was inspired by the anthologized writings of nearly 200 New York City students, aged 7 through 18.
"[4] At odds with a squalid setting and a cynical, materialistic view of the world, themes of hope and renewal emerged.
To guarantee uplift, samples from the students' work were interwoven with a ground-breaking score that combined rock music, classical fugues, early rap and jazz.
Recorded at the CBS television studio now known as The Ed Sullivan Theater, the project was recast but included one original cast member, Jose Fernandez.
"[2] Harold Clurman in reviewing for The Nation, wrote "What I cherished about the show is the talent and vitality of the cast, the bubble of its playfulness, the raciness of its expression which, with or without the advantages of privileged training among the actors, is still the product of the streets in the dim and sequestered parts of our town.
The sheer tenacity of the human spirit against oppression, against rats, against drugs, against the numbing, almost soothing grind of poverty, is glorious and triumphant.