• The Legend of Frankie and Johnny
• About the Playwright: Terrence McNally
• “Frankie and Johnny were lovers…”

The Legend of Frankie and Johnny

“Frankie and Johnny,” also known as “Frankie and Albert,” or “Frankie and Allen,” or just “Frankie,” tells the story of a woman, Frankie, who finds her man Johnny making love to another woman and shoots him dead. Frankie is then arrested and in some versions of the song she is also executed.

It has been suggested that the song was inspired, or its details influenced, by one or more actual murders. On October 15, 1899, a Sunday night, 22-year old dancer Frankie Baker shot 17-year old Albert (or Allen) Britt who was having a relationship with a woman named Alice Pryor. Britt died of his wounds two days later, and when she stood trial, Frankie claimed she acted in self-defense and was acquitted. The real Frankie Baker reappeared several times before her death in 1950 to sue various composers and recording artists for using her story.

The first published version of the music to "Frankie and Johnny" appeared in 1904, credited to and copyrighted by Hughie Cannon, though the exact origin of the song is unknown as many believe the song long predates the earliest published versions. Since "Frankie and Johnny" is a traditional song there is no single definitive version of the lyrics. The refrain common to most versions is: "He was her man, but he was doing her wrong." The name of the song's "other woman" varies, Alice or Nellie Bly being the most usual ones.

The song became a hit, and over the years and under numerous titles it has been recorded by Lead Belly, Johnny Cash, Sam Cooke, Bob Dylan, Mississippi John Hurt, Joe and Eddie, Bessie Smith, Jack Johnson, Charlie Patton, Charlie Poole, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Mae West, Fats Waller, Van Morrison, and Stevie Wonder, among others.

Frankie and Johnny (traditional)*

Frankie and Johnny were lovers, O Lordy, how they could love.
Swore to be true to each other, true as the stars above;
He was her man, but he done her wrong.

Frankie she was a good woman, just like everyone knows.
She spent a hundred dollars for a suit of Johnny’s clothes.
He was her man, but he done her wrong.

Frankie and Johnny went walking, Johnny in a brand new suit.
“Oh, good Lord,” says Frankie, “but don’t my Johnny look cute?”
He was her man, but he done her wrong.

Frankie went down to Memphis, she went on the evening train.
She paid one hundred dollars for a Johnny’s watch and chain.
He was her man, but he done her wrong.

Frankie lived in the crib house, crib house only had two doors.
Gave all her money to Johnny, he spent it on those call-house whores.
He was her man, but he done her wrong.

Johnny’s mother told him, and she was mighty wise,
“Don’t spend Frankie’s money on that parlor Alice Fry.
You’re Frankie’s man, and you’re doing her wrong.”

Frankie and Johnny were lovers, they had a quarrel one day,
Johnny he up and told Frankie, “Bye-bye, babe, I’m going away.
I was your man, but I’m just gone.”

Frankie went down to the corner to buy a glass of beer.
Says to the fat bartender, “Has my lovingest man been here?
He was my man, but he’s doing me wrong.”

“Ain’t gonna tell you no story, ain’t gonna tell you no lie,
I seen your man ’bout an hour ago with a girl named Alice Fry.
If he’s your man, he’s doing you wrong.”

Frankie went down to the pawnshop, she didn’t go there for fun;
She hocked all of her jewelry, bought a pearl-handled forty-four gun
For to get her man who was doing her wrong.

Frankie she went down Broadway, with her gun in her hand,
Sayin’, “Stand back, all you livin’ women, I’m a-looking for my gambolin’ man.
For he’s my man, won’t treat me right.”

Frankie went down to the hotel, looked in the window so high,
There she saw her loving Johnny a-loving up Alice Fry.
Damn his soul, he was mining in coal.

Frankie went down to the hotel, she rang that hotel bell.
“Stand back, all of you chippies, or I’ll blow you all to hell.
I want my man, who’s doing me wrong.”

Frankie threw back her kimono, she took out her forty-four,
Root-a-toot-toot three times she shot right through that hotel door.
She was after her man who was doing her wrong.

Johnny grabbed off his Stetson, “Oh, god Lord, Frankie, don’t shoot!”
But Frankie pulled the trigger and the gun went root-a-toot-toot.
He was her man, but she shot him down.

Johnny he mounted the staircase, crying “Oh, Frankie, don’t you shoot!”
Three times she pulled that forty-four a-root-a-toot-toot-toot-toot.
She shot her man who threw her down.

First time she shot him he staggered, second time she shot him he fell.
Third time she shot him, O Lordy, there was a new man’s face in hell.
She killed her man who had done her wrong.

“Roll me over easy, roll me over slow,
Roll me over on my left side for the bullet hurt me so.
I was her man, but I done her wrong.”

“Oh my baby, kiss me, once before I go.
Turn me over on my right side, the bullet hurt me so.
I was your man, but I done you wrong.”

Johnny he was a gambler, he gambled for the gain,
The very last words that Johnny said were, “High-low Jack and the game.”
He was her man, but he done her wrong.

Frankie heard a rumbling away down in the ground.
Maybe it was Johnny where she had shot him down.
He was her man and she done him wrong.

Oh, bring on your rubber-tired hearses, bring on your rubber-tired hacks,
They’re taking Johnny to the cemetery and they ain’t a-bringing him back.
He was her man, but he done her wrong.

Eleven macks a-riding to the graveyard, all in a rubber-tired hack,
Eleven macks a-riding to the graveyard, only ten a-coming back.
He was her man, but he done her wrong.

Frankie went to the coffin, she looked down on Johnny’s face,
She said, “Oh, Lord, have mercy on me. I wish I could take his place.
He was my man and I done him wrong.”

Frankie went to Mrs. Halcomb, she fell down on her knees,
She said to Mrs. Halcomb, “Forgive me if you please.
I’ve killed my man for doing me wrong.”

“Forgive you, Frankie darling, forgive you I never can.
Forgive you, Frankie darling, for killing your only man
He was your man, though he done you wrong.”

The judge said to the jury, “It’s as plain as plain can be.
This woman shot her man, it’s murder in the first degree.
He was her man, though he done her wrong.”

Now it was not murder in the second degree, it was not murder in the third.
The woman simply dropped her man, like a hunter drops his bird.
He was her man and he done her wrong.

“Oh, bring a thousand policemen, bring them around today,
Oh, lock me in that dungeon and throw the key away.
I killed my man ‘cause he done me wrong.”

“Oh, put me in that dungeon. Oh, put me in that cell,
Put me where the northeast wind blows from the southwest corner of hell.
I shot my man ‘cause he done me wrong.”

Frankie walked up the scaffold, as calm as a girl can be,
And turning her eyes to heaven she said, “Good Lord, I’m coming to thee.
He was my man, and I done him wrong.”

*Battle, Kemp P. Great American Folklore. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1986.

About the Playwright: Terrence McNally

Considered one of America’s leading playwrights, Terrence McNally was born in 1939 in St. Petersburg, Florida and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas. The son of a beer distributor father and a mother who encouraged him in the arts, he was taken to see his first play on Broadway when he was 6 years old. He left Texas for New York City after high school to study English at Columbia University, graduating in 1960.

An early one-act play submitted to the prestigious Actor’s Studio was turned down, but resulted in McNally becoming the Studio’s stage manager. He gained practical knowledge of writing for the stage and was introduced to the greatest artists working in the theater at the time, becoming a protégé and lover to noted playwright Edward Albee for seven years.

His first play, the 1964 scandalous farce And Things Go Bump in the Night, garnered unflattering reviews, but he continued working, becoming an important voice in off-Broadway and Broadway theaters with his plays The Ritz (1975), The Lisbon Traviata (1985) and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (1987). In 1990 McNally won an Emmy Award for the TV miniseries Andre’s Mother, a drama about a mother trying to cope with her son’s death from AIDS.

McNally’s attention turned back to the stage in 1991 with Lips Together, Teeth Apart, a study of the irrational fear of homosexuals and victims of AIDS, followed by A Perfect Ganesh in 1993. McNally teamed with composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb for a second time in 1992 (after 1984’s The Rink) to write the book for the musical Kiss of the Spider Woman, for which he won the Tony Award for best book of a musical.

In 1995 McNally scored his second Tony Award, winning best play for Love! Valor! Compassion!, his examination of the complex relationships between eight gay men. McNally followed the next year with his third Tony Award win, and second for best play, Master Class, a character study of legendary opera soprano Maria Callas. He wrote the book for the musical Ragtime (1997), collaborating with Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, and won a second Tony Award for best book of a musical, adding up to a total of four Tony Awards.

Stirring up much controversy, McNally’s 1997 Corpus Christi was a modern day retelling of the story of Jesus’ birth, ministry, and death in which both Jesus and his disciples are homosexuals. The play was cancelled and then reslated for production amidst picketing, scathing editorials, and bomb and death threats.

During the last decade McNally wrote the lyrics for the opera Dead Man Walking (2000), the book for the musical The Full Monty (2001), the play Dedication or The Stuff of Dreams (2005), the musical Chita Rivera: A Dancer’s Life (2006), Some Men (2006), and Deuce (2007), starring Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes.

“Frankie and Johnny were lovers…”
by Margot Melcon

“Frankie and Johnny were lovers…” The song’s recognizable beginning tells a story of love and betrayal, a legendary romance between a hotheaded young woman and her cheating man.

The Frankie and Johnny of this play’s title, however, are two lonely coworkers who have navigated through an awkward first date of dinner and a movie and concluded their evening with impulsive, passionate lovemaking. But it turns out the evening isn’t over, and in the darkness of Frankie’s tiny moonlit apartment, the courtship of Frankie and Johnny truly begins.

Written and set in 1987, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune is the story of two people at once pursuing and resisting love, a dance that is as beautifully clumsy today as it was 20 years ago. Having made it past the promiscuous party of the 60s and 70s, we are well into the post-AIDS era of guarded intimacy. Frankie is careful with herself and her emotions, preferring solitude to the daunting task of finding love. Johnny sees human contact as the ultimate prize, the highest high. Beyond the immediate reward of a one-night-stand, Johnny is looking for love everlasting.

In the wake of the AIDS crisis, protection became mandatory; it was as much about emotional barriers as it was about safe sex. People built walls to keep themselves isolated and safe. “I usually get my idea for a play by starting with an image of people, which is how I thought of Frankie and Johnny,” said playwright Terrence McNally in a 1987 interview, just before the first production of Frankie and Johnny opened in New York. “A big image of the 80s is people in a video shop checking out three or four films, and that’s who we’re going home with for the night, this who-needs-anybody attitude, and that bothers me.”

And how much has changed in the 20 years since he wrote the play? Now face-to-face interaction is the exception rather than the rule, and people are finding intimacy (sex and love) in the anonymous landscape of the internet. MTC Artistic Director Jasson Minadakis was drawn to the play for precisely that reason. “The story of Frankie and Johnny resonates more today than it has since it premiered. Trying to find someone to connect with is risky and time-consuming—time seeming to be our most precious currency these days—so much so that we rely on computer programs to match us with potential partners. We’ve tried to minimize the risk. There is limited discovery in dating today, and compatibility—with regard to issues like marriage, children, and religion—is guaranteed, or at least pre-screened. The fear that Frankie and Johnny must overcome to open themselves up and connect is something we can all relate to.”

Even after a lifetime of false starts and failures in past relationships, Frankie and Johnny long for a greater connection and the promise of unconditional love. “What drives Frankie crazy is that she’s found someone who loves her,” explained the playwright. “We all walk around saying we want someone to love us unconditionally, and then when someone does, we make up a new condition.” The unconditional love comes to Frankie in the body of Johnny, a man full of contradictions and he carries with his love the danger of disappointment. These characters, beautifully written in their opposition, provide the push and pull found in the best of couples on stage and in life, and the counter balance that exists in every person, including the playwright. “You know,” mused the playwright, “I can be too much like a Frankie, but I want to be a Johnny.”

TERRI McMAHON (Frankie) is appearing in her second show at Marin Theatre Company more than a decade after her first, On The Verge.  She has been a company member at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland for many years acting in a variety of productions from William Shakespeare to original contemporary works. She has also enjoyed working in regional theaters up and down the West Coast from the Intiman Theatre in Seattle to Arizona Theatre Company down south.  Terri has recently begun directing and hopes to collaborate with the wonderful artists she has shared stages with over the years, including the great pool of San Francisco/Bay Area actors. Next season at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Terri will act in Dead Man’s Cell Phone and Don Quixote and will direct in the new Black Swan Lab.

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ROD GNAPP (Johnny) is a graduate of The American Conservatory Theatre, and a veteran of Bay Area stages. He was last seen in ACT’s productions of The Curse of The Starving Class, The Government Inspector, and The Rainmaker. Rod has performed in MTC’s productions of Frozen, Molly Sweeny, Keely and Du, The Crucible, Orphans and others. Rod’s recent film credits include, a card playing buddy in The Miller Brothers production of “Touching Home,” staring Ed Harris; and a principle bad guy in “Valley of The Heart’s Delight,” a local independent feature about the San Jose lynching. He is also a featured player in Pixar’s new live action independent film “Calendar Confloption.”

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JASSON MINADAKIS (Director) is in his second season as Artistic Director of Marin Theatre Company. He came to MTC from Atlanta where he was the Artistic Director at Actor's Express Theatre Company from 2003-06. From 1994­2002, he was the Producing Artistic Director of Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, which he co-founded as Fahrenheit Theatre Company. This season he will direct Frankie & Johnny in the Clair De Lune and the West Coast premieres of Conor McPherson's The Seafarer and Octavio Solis' Lydia. At MTC he has directed A Streetcar Named Desire, Said Saïd, Love Song and The Subject Tonight is Love. Regional Credits include The Pillowman, Bug, The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Killer Joe, The Goat or Who is Sylvia?, Blue/Orange, Hamlet, Copenhagen.

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KAT CONLEY (Scenic Designer) is ecstatic to be designing for the Marin Theatre Company, being in California, and having the pleasure of working with Jasson again.  A native of Davis, Kat has been based in Atlanta, GA since 2000.  An Associate Artist with Georgia Shakespeare and Actor’s Express, Kat has also designed scenery for Alliance Theater, winner of the 2007 Regional Tony Award, the Atlanta Ballet, Actor’s Express, The Center for Puppetry Arts, 7 Stages, Theatrical Outfit, Theater in the Square, The Springer Opera House, The Bloomenthal Performing Arts Center, and the Aurora Theater.  For the past eight seasons Kat has also been the Charge Scenic Artist for the Alliance Theater. Whether dramatically challenging, visionary or escapist, all theater and art is important, thank you for supporting it in our community.

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MICHAEL PALUMBO (Lighting Designer) designed lighting for MTC’s productions of The Good German, Killer Joe and Two for the Seesaw.  He has designed productions throughout Northern California including Theophilus North, Anna in the Tropics, Vincent in Brixton, and All My Sons for TheatreWorks; The Immigrant for San Jose Repertory Theatre; The Barber of Seville for Sacramento Opera; the premieres of Rust and Pleasure & Pain at Magic Theatre; La Boheme, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, and Faust for Opera San Jose; Othello and Elizabeth Rex for Pacific Repertory Theatre; Man of La Mancha and The Music Man for DLOC; The Diary of Anne Frank for San Jose Stage Company; and The Light in the Piazza for Palo Alto Players.

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CALLIE FLOOR (Costume Designer) earned her BFA from the University of Utah and her Higher Diploma in Theatre Design from the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London.  Since coming to the Bay Area in 1987, she has designed for many Bay area theaters including ACT, ACT Master’s program, Aurora Theatre, The San Francisco Mime Troupe, Zaccho Dance Theatre.  She is happy to return to Marin, having last designed The Subject Tonight is Love and Jacques Brel is Alive and Well... .  Recent projects include Flying Dutchman for West Bay Opera and Orlando and The Wendy Play for ACT Master’s Program.  Callie is the resident designer for the California Revels and currently holds the position of Costume Rentals Supervisor for ACT.  

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CHRIS HOUSTON (Sound Designer) is a pianist, composer, and sound designer. He writes and designs for film, video, theater, and dance. His designs and compositions have been featured at Marin Theatre, Aurora Theatre, SF Playhouse, A.C.T., Center Repertory, Magic Theater, and SF Shakespeare. At MTC, he has recently designed Love Person, A Streetcar Named Desire, Said Said, Lovers and Executioners, and The Good German. Other recent productions include The Best Man, The Busy World is Hushed, Trojan Women, The Mousetrap, Hysteria, 6 Degrees of Separation, Jesus Hopped the “A” Train, and The Birthday Party. His music may be heard on the Emmy winning PBS news show “NOW.”

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