Say, Darling - Background

Background

The original 1957 Broadway production featured only two pianos, but RCA Victor released a fully orchestrated original cast recording of the score, leading many to conclude that Say, Darling was actually a musical.

In a case of art imitating life not once, but twice, the show is an adaptation of Richard Bissell's semi-autobiographical novel of the same name which chronicled his experience adapting his novel 7½ Cents for The Pajama Game, making it in essence a play of a book about a musical adaptation of a book.

It focuses on Jack Jordan, who is brought to Broadway to help develop his best-seller into a musical for leading lady Irene Lovelle. His journey provides him - and the audience - with an education about what goes on behind-the scenes on the Great White Way, from auditions to rehearsals to rewrites in hotel rooms to feuds among cast members, all under the watchful eye of veteran stage producer/director Richard Hackett (loosely based on George Abbott) and a very young fledgling co-producer, Ted Snow, whose financial acumen greatly outweighs his show business savvy. Because of their similar physical appearance, actor Robert Morse (who played Snow) was widely thought to be imitating producer Harold Prince, who had co-produced The Pajama Game.