«When I Come Around Again»: Time, dream, and memory in the musicals of Alan Jay Lerner

The American lyricist Alan Jay Lerner is best known for writing the book and lyrics for My Fair Lady (1956), an adaptation of Shaw’s Pygmalion (1913), but his output as a whole reveals an interest in memory, dreams and time, key anxieties of American society in the mid-twentieth century. This article examines Lerner’s comments on his identity as a writer to help understand how he viewed himself as regards lyric writing and poetry. The article then surveys examples from most of his musicals to consider how these three interrelated themes lie at the heart of his work regardless of the setting or plot of his musicals. It analyses how in musicals like Love Life (1948) and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (1976) the reference to dreams serves a wider critique of the American Dream, while a focus on time can underpin the needs of hours passing (as in “The Servants’ Chorus” from My Fair Lady) or the use of seasons to represent the passage of time from birth to death (as in Camelot, 1960). The article also offers a consideration of Lerner’s most metaphysical work On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1965), in which reincarnation and extrasensory perception collide.