Moving to the small town of Bloomdale, Indiana, Mike Butler (David Cryer), takes up the post of English teacher. Although he rouses suspicion because of his liberal teaching methods, his Principle, Albert McKinley (David Sabin), defends him, even though he is man with a mysterious past, having fought in Vietnam, ending his military career with a court-martial. Mike becomes enamoured of the music teacher Sarah Larkin (Sally Niven), but also makes an enemy of the athletics coach’s son Tommy (Steve Skiles) and his father Herbert Heller (Art Wallace), who does not like Mike’s liberal attitude, believing him to be a communist. Herbert is a paragon of American male hood, getting drunk and waving his gun around, he is determined to uncover Mike's secret…

Now is the Time for All Good Men (1967) off-Broadway credentials could not have been stronger, tackling head on the themes of what makes a good man, whilst presenting a contemporary anti-war sentiment. Mike, who had been thrown out of the army for his inability to kill his fellow man, or Herbert, whose boorish behaviour includes getting drunk and threatening to kill.

The show originally ran between 26 September 1967 and 16 January 1968. Directed by Word Baker, the show’s lyrics and book were provided by Gretchen Cryer, set to Nancy Ford’s music.

The general quality of both the comic numbers and the ballads is high; highlights include 'He Could Show Me', although given when the show was originally created and with a theme which would have been controversial, I do wonder why stylistically Ford and Cryer felt that the music should be so obviously show tunes. I can’t help but feel that while the message of the show was looking forward, musically its focus was very much on the past.

Still it’s a very easy listening experience, with the expected high quality recording which is expected of Masterworks.

The track listing is as follows:

'What's In The Air?', 'Keep 'Em Busy', 'Tea In The Rain', 'Halloween Hayride/Katydid', 'See Everything New', 'Stuck-Up', 'He Could Show Me', 'All Alone', 'My Holiday', 'Down Through History', 'Good Enough For Grandpa', 'A Simple Life', 'A Star On The Monument', 'Rain Your Love On Me', 'There's Goin' To Be A Wedding' and 'Finale: Quintet'.

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Charles Packer