The story is based on the 1942 novella by Eudora Welty of the same name, with a Robin Hood-like hero; the adaptation placed it in a late 18th-century American setting.

Other cast members included Steve Vinovich (Clemment Musgrove), Rhonda Coullet (Rosamund), John Getz (Mike Fink), Bill Nunnery (Little Harp), Ernie Sabella (Little Harp), Trip Plymale (Goat), Cynthia Herman (Airie), Susan Berger (Salome), John Houseman bought the show for his group, The Acting Company and took it to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, New York with Kevin Kline replacing Julia, Patti LuPone as Rosamund, and Mary Lou Rosato as Salome.

[1] The first Broadway production, with the same Ravinia cast directed by Gerald Freedman and choreographed by Donald Saddler, opened in a limited engagement on October 7, 1975 at the Harkness Theatre, where it ran for 14 performances and 1 preview before setting out on a one-year US national tour.

Its success on the road convinced the producers to mount a revamped Broadway production with an extended book and expanded, heavily bluegrass-tinged score.

The music, deemed "country and southern" by Clive Barnes,[2] was arranged for guitar, fiddle, mandolin, bass and banjo.

The show was directed by Freedman, choreographed by Saddler, with scenery by Douglas W. Schmidt, costumes by Jeanne Button, and lighting by David F. Segal.

The cast included Barry Bostwick (Lockhart), Steve Vinovich (Clemment Musgrove), Rhonda Coullet (Rosamund), Lawrence John Moss (Little Harp), Ernie Sabella (Big Harp), Trip Plymale (Goat), Susan Berger (Goat's Mother), Jana Schneider (Airie), Carolyn McCurry (Raven), and Barbara Lang (Salome).

Hardin (Norman Ogelsby), Mary Murray (Queenie Brenner), Melinda Tanner (Rose Otto), Dennis Warning (Gerry G. Summers), and Tom Westerman (K.K.

The 1977 National tour produced by Gordon Crowe starred Barbara Marineau ( Rosamund),[3] George DeLoy (Jamie), John Goodman (Little Harp), Ernie Sabella (Big Harp), Trip Playmale (Goat), Michael McGrath, Laurie Franks (Salome) and Scott Holmes and was directed by Bolen High and Porter VanZandt and choreographed by Dennis Grimaldi.

Grateful, Musgrove invites Jamie to his home for dinner and for the chance to meet and woo his greatest treasure, his daughter, Rosamund.

Salome goes out into town where everyone hates her and hires a boy named Goat to follow Rosamund back into the indigo field and kill her, taking a scrap of her new dress as proof.

Rosamund, donning her new dress, goes back to the woods to look for herbs, per Salome's request, and woes her empty, loveless life as Goat follows her ("Nothin' Up").

Finally, Jamie comes to the Musgrove estate and is greeted by Salome, dressed to the nines who immediately is entranced by his looks and pursues him sexually.

Rosamund returns to the woods and goes to The Bandit's home—which Jamie encourages ("Little Piece Of Sugar Cane")--finds her dress, puts it on, and fixes the place up.

Meanwhile, Salome speaks again to Goat, clarifying that he needs to follow Rosamund—who Musgrove believes to be kidnapped and missing by The Bandit Of The Woods—and kill her in order to get his payment.