May 30, 31, June 5, 6, 12, 13, 1976
The Golden Apple, by John Latouche, music by Jerome Moross, is a musical retelling, with "not a single passage of spoken dialogue" of Homer's The Odyssey as it might have happened in America after the Spanish-American War. First produced in New York in 1954 where it won the Broadway Critics' Circle Award as best musical of the season, the play is set in the fictional Olympic Peninsula towns of Angel's Roost and Rhododendron. The Golden Apple tells the stories of Ulysses (Stuart Hill) and Penelope (Helen McNab), Paris (Craig McCoy) and Helen (Marlene Anderson). Bob Young was both music and stage director.
Paris, a salesman who travels by balloon, and Helen, a farmer's daughter, leave Angel's Roost together, throwing the town into an uproar. Ulysses pursues them to Rhododendron where a boxing match between Paris and Ulysses will decide Helen's fate.
The show was also famous for the caterpillars who seemed to blight the apples. It wasn't until the 1989 Hello Dolly! that such a heavy infestation reoccurred.
To raise money to buy additional property for the Rhododendron Preserve, the Players sold Golden Delicious apples at the show. Over 3,000 people were at the six performances.