A new adaptation of the 1950s musical Paint Your Wagon written by CSI: Crime Scene Investigation staff writer David Rambo received its world premiere last week.

Rambo, an accomplished playwright whose credits include God's Man in Texas and There's No Place Like House, was asked to update the musical by director Gil Cates, the U-San Bernadino County Sun reported. Set during the 1853 California Gold Rush, the musical, by Camelot scribes Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, originally premiered in 1951.

Although initially reluctant to take on the gig, Rambo said Cates, a longtime Academy Awards director, inspired him to sign up. "It was his enthusiasm that drew me in. I was getting kind of busy, and I wasn't really sure that I wanted to try to fix something that had been around for 50 years and that everyone said was unfixable. Gil saw the show's original production on Broadway, and he'd never forgotten it. Clearly it had some hold on his imagination."

Paint Your Wagon revolves around Ben Runsom, a widowed prospector, whose 16-year-old daughter hits the jackpot (literally) when she discovers gold. Rambo's adaptation for the Geffen Playhouse, starring Emmy nominee and former NYPD Blue actress Sharon Lawrence, debuted last week, with the official premiere slated for December 1 at the Brentwood Theatre.

Rambo burst onto the CSI scene last year with his script for "Butterflied", in which the primary suspect's life had an eerie resemblance to that of Gil Grissom. This season he joined the writing staff as a story editor and co-wrote "Swap Meet", which dealt with a murder at a swingers' party.

The original article can be found here at the U-San Bernadino County Sun. To book tickets for the play, which runs until January 9, head over to this page.

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