Sebesky, Don.

First a television film starring Ruth Gordon in 1977, the story was adapted as a stage musical with unfortunate results. This script is an early version of the musical sent to Dorothy Loudon for consideration by the director Albert Marre, but Loudon did not accept. It was announced Martha Raye would appear in it at the Drury Lane Theatre, Oakbrook, Ill., in Nov. 1985, but no production seems to have materialized before the one at the Belasco Theatre, New York, N.Y. Then directed by Tony Tanner, it opened Nov. 9, 1998, and closed Nov. 11 after just 4 performances, with Jo Anne Worley as the old lady who befriends a 12-year-old boy living in a tree in Central Park. In 2000 it was released as a non-musical motion picture starring Kathleen Turner, Harvey Keitel, and Jerry Orbach.

From the description of The prince of Central Park / music by Don Sebesky ; lyrics by Gloria Nissenson ; book by Evan H. Rhodes, 198-? (New York Public Library). WorldCat record id: 740491828