Using the 50th anniversary of the famous title bout between boxers Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston, which took place in Lewiston in the spring of 1965, as a jumping off point, local author Brain Daly has written a brand new musical, entitled “Come Out Swingin’.”

Lyric Music Theater in South Portland will hold a staged reading of the new show on Friday, Oct. 2, and Daly is hopeful, if the musical receives a good reception, that the theater will add the show to its lineup for the 2016-2017 season “and after that, who knows?” he said.

Mary Meserve will direct the debut of “Come Out Swingin’,” which will feature a cast of Lyric favorites, as well as a few newcomers. The reading will include the songs, “a little blocking” and “maybe a smidgen of choreography,” according to Daly, but no costumes and no sets.

In a press release, Daly describes his new musical as “a traditional Broadway-style show with original songs, lots of laughs and plenty of heart. When the show is done as a fully-mounted production, it will (also) have what it doesn’t have now, and there will be dance throughout – lots of dance – and a full pit band.”

While Daly wrote the book, lyrics and music, Hans Indigo Spencer was responsible for the orchestration and arrangements.

Daly is the author of the popular children’s novel, “Big and Hairy,” which was made into a television movie of the same name. He wrote the screenplay for that movie and was also recently commissioned to write a screenplay for Sony Pictures.

In addition, Daly is working on another screenplay that Gross-Weston Productions hopes to sell to the Hallmark Channel. And Spencer has composed numerous scores for shows on PBS and the History, National Geographic and Discovery channels. He is also a well-known local jazz musician.

Along with his professional writing career, Daly, who lives in Portland, has also appeared in several shows at Lyric Theater, including “The Drowsy Chaperone,” “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” “Anything Goes,” and “Meet Me in St. Louis.”

Daly is a native Mainer, growing up in Portland and graduating from Deering High School. He first got the idea to write a musical about the Ali-Liston heavyweight title fight after talking with a friend, who wrote a paper on the event when he was in graduate school.

He said the show’s focus is mostly on how the fight affected the people of Lewiston.

In writing the musical, Daly said, “I wondered how it felt for the people of Lewiston to be the focus of so much worldwide attention 50 years ago, at a time when everybody knew the heavyweight champion of the world.”

Overall, Daly wants “the audience to have a good time. My goal is to entertain people.”

Meserve signed on to direct the debut of “Come Out Swingin’” due in part to her longtime friendship with Daly, but also because when she first read the script, “I liked it right away.”

She added, “This summer, after (Brian) and Hans had worked on the music, he contacted me again and with the additional work he had put in I knew he had something. We talked about a staged reading right away.”

What Meserve most likes about this new musical is that Daly has “created a great sense of time and place, which transports the audience back to the mid-1960s. His script is engaging and enjoyable (and) our cast has had a great time working on these characters and this music.”

She said having a staged reading of a new work is critical to moving “the piece forward. You can work on it and refine it, but there are always new levels to be found when you have a group of talented actors inhabit the characters and you really hear it for the first time.”

Meserve also said, “It’s wonderful for the community to get to enjoy new works at their inception. Fortunately, there is great support for the artistic community in southern Maine.”

In terms of the show itself, she said, “Come Out Swingin’ is a new way for a whole new generation to hear a true Maine story. I hope (the audience) enjoys the creativity, the quality of the musical and the talent of all those involved.”

The staging of the new musical is a joint fundraiser for Lyric Theater, as well as for Daly and Meserve, who is also on the theater’s board of directors, said, “Lyric is most proud to simply be supporting a local artist and this creative endeavor.”

The second heavyweight championship boat between Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston took place in Lewiston on May 25, 1965, at what was then known as St. Dominic’s Arena or the Central Maine Youth Center. The venue is now called the Androscoggin Bank Colise?e.

According to the historical record, Ali was 23 at the time and had just changed his name from Cassius Clay.

The rematch between the two fighters was held in Lewiston because at the time the Boston Police Department feared what would happen if the fight occurred at the Boston Garden as originally planned.

There were threats against Ali, who had converted to Islam and changed his name in honor of the assassination of Malcolm X, and Liston was known for facing a long list of criminal charges and for serving time in prison.

However, the fight’s promoters were anxious to hold the bout because they had a $3 million television deal they didn’t want to jeopardize. So they called Sam Michael, a local fight promoter and Lewiston’s economic development commissioner at the time.

Although holding the match in Portland might have made more sense, Michael wanted the fight to take place in his hometown and convinced the fight’s backers to move the event to Lewiston.

Tickets for the bout were priced at $100, $50 and $25, more than most locals could afford.

Like most prizefights of that era, the bout brought in a number of famous and wealthy people, including Frank Sinatra and Elizabeth Taylor, along with a phalanx of sports journalists.

Unfortunately for everyone who made the special effort to get to the fight, it was over in less than 3 minutes.

Accounts of the event from the time say it began a little after 10:40 p.m. It was near the 1:40 mark when Ali hit Liston with a short, chopping right. Liston went down and Ali is said to have shouted, “Get up and fight, sucker!”

There was quite a bit of confusion among the referees and fight organizers and even though Liston was down for a count of 12, he did get up and attempted to resume the fight, which was officially called in Ali’s favor at 2:12.

Newspaper reports from the time said the result of the match was so suspicious that the Maine Boxing Commission seized the gloves of both fighters and held an investigation, which resulted in no finding.

Muhammad Ali defended his heavyweight boxing title by knocking out Sonny Liston during a fight in Lewiston on Mary 25, 1965. The bout officially lasted 2:12. Courtesy  photosMaine native Brian Daly has written the book, lyrics and music for a new musical called, “Come Out Swingin’,” which is based on the famous Ali vs. Liston fight in Lewiston in 1965.

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