University of Florida Performing Arts

Sponsored by Lowry Financial Advisors, Inc., The Village and WGFL-TV CBS4

NEW!  To hear song clips from the show, click play:

To see the Broadway cast perform at the 60th Annual Tony Awards, click here.

About the Show
Pajamas, love, singing and labor unions vs. management conflicts create the colorful basis of The Pajama Game, based on the Broadway musical.  Chock-full of musical numbers and romantic subplots, the real story is the 7.5 percent hour raise the pajama factory works are demanding to keep their salaries comparable with other garment workers’ pay.  Sid, the new superintendent of the factory, pushes both himself and the workers hard in order to prove himself to the owner, but a visit by the union grievances committee in the form of lovely but tough Babe brings out his softer, romantic side.  Despite their love, Babe warns Sid that the union-management turmoil will cause problems for them, too, and Sid has to juggle his job, his heart and his conscience to find a solution that will solve everything.

Interesting Facts

The Pajama Game has received 12 Tony Award nominations:

• Three nominations and wins for the original 1955 production: Best Musical, Best
  Choreography and Best Featured Actress (Carol Haney).
• Nine nominations for the 2006 revival and two wins: Best Musical – Revival and Best
  Choreography.

The History of The Pajama Game
In 1953 Robert Griffith, who worked with Hal Prince in the George Abbott production office, read a New York Times review of Richard Bissell’s novel 7 ½ Cents.  Griffith, who was producing a television show for the Ford Motor Company, called Prince and asked him to read the book quickly.  Prince liked the book and he and Griffith quickly obtained the stage rights; this would be their first show as a producing team.  They showed the book to George Abbott, in hopes of contracting him to direct the as yet unwritten and unnamed show.  Abbott, at first uninterested, agreed to direct if a talented playwright could be found to adapt the novel.  They were turned down by the many major bookwriters, composers and lyricists they approached, apparently put off by the prospect of writing a humorous show about a labor strike at the same time the McCarthy Senate Committee was destroying the careers of many artists.  Walking down Fifth Avenue (after failing to convince Abe Burrows to join the project), Abbott thought of the title, The Pajama Game, and suggested to Prince and Griffith that he and Bissell co-write the book of the show.  Bissell agreed and moved his family from Dubuque, Iowa.

Abbott not only directed the show, receiving a small percentage of the profits and a relatively low royalty, he also allowed the new production team to operate rent-free out of his offices and arranged backers’ auditions to raise money for the show.  Several composer/lyricist teams turned down offers to write the show.  Frank Loesser, who had also turned down the show, recommended Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, newcomers who had written most of the songs in the 1953 revue, John Murray Anderson’s Almanac, and the 1953 pop song hit, Rags to Riches.  In two days they wrote four songs on “spec” (meaning for no money); they were hired and all four songs were later used in the show.  The rest of the songs were written in five weeks.  Jerome Robbins had been the first choice for choreographer, but was unable to do the show; he did, however, join the show as a co-director.  Joan McCracken, a Broadway performer, recommended her husband, Bob Fosse, as choreographer; he had appeared as a dancer in Broadway shows and films and wanted to begin choreographing on Broadway.  Frederick Brisson joined the show as a co-producer.  The 164 investors included members of the chorus and backstage employees.

As rehearsals began in the Winter Garden Theatre and with an opening date set (one year from the time that Prince and Griffith had acquired the rights to 7 ½ Cents), the show’s capitalization was still $28,000 short.  Abbott advanced the production team the difference.  Prince and Griffith were so short of money that they functioned as their own stage managers, both to save money and to draw salaries; producers were not paid until a show made back its original investment.  Neither Prince nor Griffith actually saw the show from the audience until months into the Broadway run.

Among the few changes made to the show during the rehearsal process was the addition of Hey There, which later became one of the hit songs, even though Adler thought it might be “too classy” to be popular.  The Pajama Game had successful pre-Broadway runs in New Haven and Boston, and opened at the St. James Theatre in New York on May 13, 1954, to great reviews.  It starred John Raitt as Sid Sorokin, Janis Paige as Babe Williams, Eddie Foy, Jr. as Hines, and Carol Hainey as Gladys.  Shirley MacLaine, who was Hainey’s understudy, was discovered by Hollywood producer Hal Wallis, who happened to be in the audience on a night she went on for Hainey.  The show closed in 1956 after 1,063 performances, becoming only the eighth musical in Broadway history to run over 1,000 performances.  Columbia Records produced the original cast recording.  The show toured for two years with Larry Douglass and Fran Warren playing Sid and Babe.  There have been two New York revivals of the show; one in 1957 at the New York City Center, and the other in 1973 starring Hal Linden, Barbara McNair and Cab Calloway.  In 1957 Warner Brothers released a film version starring John Raitt, Doris Day, Eddie Foy, Jr. and Carol Hainey, directed by George Abbott and Stanley Donen; the screenplay was written by Abbott and Richard Bissell.

In 2006, a stunning new musical revival starring Harry Connick, Jr. and Kelli O’Hara took Broadway by storm with a sold-out, smash hit run earning nine Tony Award nominations and winning the Tony Award for Best Choreography and Best Revival of a Musical.