Playbill - The creative team includes Claibe Richardson (composer), Stephen Cole (lyricist, writer), Philip William McKinley (Director), Matthew Ward (Musical Director), and Ray Clausen (Set Designer). The Night of the Hunter began in 1954 as a noir novel penned by Davis Grubb. A Southern gothic tale, it follows a committed criminal who attempts to manipulate two children into revealing where their father hid money by pretending to be a priest. The lauded 1955 film version, directed by Charles Laughton, featured Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish and Robert Mitchum. ...