First presented in the spring of 1972 at the Theatre for the New City at Westbeth, NYC, directed by Jean-Claude van Itallie, music by Richard Peaslee, lyrics by Jean-Claude van Itallie. The cast included Judd Hirsch, Nancy Cooperstein Charney, Shami Chaikin, and Sharon Gans. In May 1974 it was produced by the Proposition Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, directed by Allen Albert. In the fall of 1974 Albert directed King of the United States at the American Place Theatre in NYC.

COMPANY (singing): The words fall out as in a dream.

They seem to have little logical connection

One with the next.

Everything happens now at once:

The King is dead, we elect a new King.

The King is dying, we bury him

All at once as in a dream.

The question is who, who is dreaming?

Is it the King, are we all inside his head?

And if this is not so, if we are autonomous,

Then who, who is this King?

And why does he allow us to live as we live?

YOUNG MAN: Once upon a time there were rats in the city and fire and famine. The king would see no-one. The dead remained unburied. It was whispered that ghosts inhabited the old bodies of the dead and went about doing mischief. Yet because people died without symptoms, it was impossible to tell the dead from the living. Everyone was suspicious. But to appear suspicious was a bad sign so we went about our business trying to look alive...

PROFESSOR: The candidate entered!

POLITICIAN: It was one of those moments.

YOUNG MAN: He was larger than life.

POLITICIAN: I was charmed.

ETIQUETTE LADY: He shook hands with well-wishers.

POLITICIAN: His lips pursed.

YOUNG MAN: He suppressed a moment of anger.

POLITICIAN: I knew I would know just how to react. When to be decisive. When to be...

ETIQUETTE LADY: Pleased. How to know upon entering a room–

MYSTERY WRITER: Who is hostile.

ETIQUETTE LADY: Who is not...

POLICEMAN: Ladies and gentlemen, it is my privilege to present to you at this great convention the next Emperor of these United States: Albert J. Harrington.

COMPANY: Harrington, Harrington, Harrington!

POLITICIAN: I believe in the truth and the future, yes. The horizon is not cloudless, no, but with common effort we’ll convert the hurricane of revolution into the bracing wind of democratic change...

COMPANY (chanting) :You are the one.

You are the king.

Our leader, the rock, our emperor,

Commander-in-chief,

Judge, Teacher, Counsellor.

Long may you reign...

MEN (singing) We want a king, a king we can trust.

We want a king, a king we can love.

We want a king, a king who will love us.

We want Albert Harrington, we want Albert Harrington

Draft Albert Harrington,

WOMEN (singing) Harrington for King...

COMPANY (singing) Harrington, Harrington for King,

King, King, King, King, King, King...

"… it bears the mark of one of America’s finest playwrights. … Though the play means to be in large part about all American politics, its title character is too plainly modelled on Richard Nixon. … As for van Itallie’s writing, it is simply exquisite — clean and graceful and sensible and intelligent and truthful and everything wonderful. He reminds you of what excellence is and whets the appetite for a fulfilled work. Plainly, then, lesser things of his are worth seeing." Martin Gottfried, New York Post.

"This play is worthy of a major production." Harold Prince.

"Good Brechtian-style lyrics." Steven Sondheim.

"The King of the United States is a small startling explosion."

Kevin Kelly, Boston Globe.

"Like America Hurrah......designed to show us the face and the feeling of our times...But Mr. Van Itallie is not just jeering at Our Man in the White House. He is trying, or so it seems, to demonstrate that such a man is the creature of those who elect him...Certain scenes...are strikingly original, like one in which a lonely woman writer, at a Washington cocktail party, creates a parlour game in the form of a mystery melodrama." Elliot Norton, Boston Herald.

Published (acting edition) by Dramatists Play Service.