A Broadway Musical

A Broadway Musical is a musical with a book by William F. Brown, lyrics by Lee Adams, and music by Charles Strouse. The Broadway production closed after 14 previews and only one performance on December 21, 1978.

The plot about a sleazy white theatre producer's attempt to adapt an African American writer's serious play for a commercial stage musical was inspired by Adams and Strouse's real-life experiences with their 1964 Broadway production of Golden Boy. The star of the musical-within-the-musical (Sneakers, about a basketball star) closely resembles Golden Boy star Sammy Davis, Jr. When the star opts to leave the show, the playwright - who from the start had resisted turning his work into a musical - steps in and takes on the lead role in order to save the production.

Read more about A Broadway Musical:  Background and Production, Song List, Characters and Original Broadway Cast, Reference and Notes

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