Original Off Broadway Cast - The Postman and the Poet

A new musical based on the novel Ardiente Paciencia by Antonio Skarmeta, on which the 1994 Oscar-winning film Il Postino was based. Starring Joanna Ampil, Ethan Freeman and Simon Thomas, with music by Michael Jeffrey and lyrics by Eden Phillips.

In contrast to the movie, the musical follows the setting and time frame of the novel: Isla Negra, a fishing village on the Chilean coast, 1970-73. Mario, inarticulate and wildly romantic, gets a job as postman to the poet Pablo Neruda. Learning from Neruda, Mario woos the beautiful Beatriz in a way that is unusual to her: in words.

The up-and-down love story of Mario and Beatriz is set against Chile's political backdrop in the years between the election of Marxist president Salvador Allende in 1970 and General Pinochet's military coup of 1973.