NEW YORK—“There’s gold in them thar hills,” as the recent Encores! production of the 1951 tuner “Paint Your Wagon” (book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, music by Frederick Loewe) amply demonstrated. While the production may not have represented the mother lode in terms of musical theater, it was certainly a rollicking and enjoyable experience.
The story is set in the days of the California Gold Rush (middle to late 1800s), in a place called “Rumson’s Creek,” so named because miner Ben Rumson (Keith Carradine) laid claim to the gold found there, through some rather unusual circumstances.
Justin Guarini plays Julio Valveras, a Mexican miner with big dreams for when he eventually strikes it rich. Joan Marcus
