The Shows
Two legendary Broadway musicals that defined the Golden Age of American theater
The Pajama Game
Opened May 13, 1954 • St. James Theatre • 1,063 performances
Music and Lyrics by Jerry Ross and Richard Adler
A romance set inside a pajama factory during a labor dispute. Sid Sorokin, the new superintendent, falls for Babe Williams, head of the union grievance committee — and the 7½-cent raise the workers are fighting for lands squarely between them. It’s a workplace comedy, a love story, and a battle of wills, all driven by one of the most energetic scores Broadway had ever heard.
George Abbott and Frank Loesser believed in Adler and Ross before almost anyone else did. After several auditions and Loesser’s recommendation, Abbott hired the duo to write their first full Broadway score. They delivered songs that became instant standards: “Hey There” and “Hernando’s Hideaway” captured the number one and two spots on the Hit Parade simultaneously — a first in music history. The score also included the Bob Fosse dance number “Steam Heat,” “Small Talk,” and “Seven and a Half Cents.”
The Pajama Game won the Tony Award for Best Musical, the Donaldson Award, and the Variety Drama Critics Award.
Directed by George Abbott and Jerome Robbins. Choreographed by Bob Fosse. Produced by Frederick Brisson, Robert E. Griffith, and Harold S. Prince. A film adaptation followed in 1957.
What the critics said:
“Broadway looks well in pajamas. The bright, brassy, and jubilantly sassy show that opened at the St. James Thursday is not just the best new musical of the season.”
— Walter Kerr, New York Herald Tribune, May 14, 1954
“The last new musical of the season is the best… Richard Adler and Jerry Ross have written an exuberant score in any number of good American idioms without self-consciousness.”
— Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times, May 14, 1954
Damn Yankees
Opened May 5, 1955 • 46th Street Theatre • 1,019 performances
Music and Lyrics by Jerry Ross and Richard Adler
Faust meets baseball. Middle-aged Joe Boyd loves his Washington Senators so much he’d sell his soul to beat the Yankees — and the Devil, in the form of the charming Mr. Applegate, takes him up on it. Transformed into young slugger Joe Hardy, he leads the Senators to the pennant race. But the cost of the deal starts to come clear: his wife, his home, his life. And then there’s Lola — Applegate’s secret weapon, a temptress who isn’t playing the game anyone expects.
A year after The Pajama Game, Adler and Ross did it again. The score produced cross-over hits including “(You Gotta Have) Heart,” “Whatever Lola Wants,” and “Two Lost Souls.” Gwen Verdon, fresh off her breakout in Can-Can, starred as Lola and became a legend in the role.
Damn Yankees won the Tony Award for Best Musical, the Donaldson Award, and the Variety Drama Critics Award.
At the time of Jerry Ross’s death on November 11, 1955, The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees were the top two shows running on Broadway.
Directed by George Abbott. Choreographed by Bob Fosse. Produced by Frederick Brisson, Robert E. Griffith, and Harold S. Prince. A film adaptation followed in 1958.
What the critics said:
“A truly tremendous musical.”
— John McClain, Journal-American
“Here’s a pennant winner if we ever saw one.”
— Robert Coleman, Daily Mirror
John Murray Anderson’s Almanac
Opened December 10, 1953 • Imperial Theatre • 229 performances
Music and Lyrics by Jerry Ross and Richard Adler (and others)
Adler and Ross’s Broadway debut. A revue for which they wrote most of the songs, it gave them their first exposure on a Broadway stage and caught the attention of the people who would soon trust them with The Pajama Game.