Army musicals from World War II brought back to the stage

During World War II, the US Army came up with an idea to boost soldier morale: musicals. 

They were designed for the soldiers themselves to perform in the field.

For the past few days, some of those shows have been performed for the first time since the war. The stage is not on Broadway, but another venue in New York City: a former aircraft carrier, now docked on the Hudson River and known as the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.

The musicals are collectively known as "Blueprint Specials." Most of the songs were written by Frank Loesser between 1944 and 1945 before he found fame with the hit musical "Guys and Dolls."

Tom Ridgely with the Waterwell Theater Company is the director who brought the Specials back to life. He came across these lost musicals while cooking dinner one night.

"The opening song for 'Guys and Dolls' just kind of popped into my head," Ridgely says, "so I just googled Frank Loesser and then his Wikipedia page says … he went to the Army and wrote this musical called 'Hi Hank!' … And that just really surprised me and so, I started to try and track it down."

He found there were "scores and scripts and instructions about how to do scenery and costumes." He found choreography instructions, too. The notes and drawings were "done by a young [man named] José Limón." Limón had been drafted into the Army in 1943 and after the war founded the famed Limón Dance Company.

The musicals hold up well through time even though Ridgely says they contain a lot of old-timey language.

However, "for the people who have served recently, I think they really see their experience reflected in these in a really, really powerful way, and they've been really open and candid about sharing that with us, which has been incredible."

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