Pal Joey

The penultimate Rodgers & Hart collaboration introduced the first anti-hero to propel a musical. Joey is an opportunistic cad, but he always seems to land on his feet. He elbows his way into a job at a seedy Chicago nightclub and is soon juggling the affections of a naive chorus girl and a wealthy society dame who just happens to be married. Once Joey has charmed the socialite into setting him up in his own joint, he ditches the chorine and is riding high, playing the big-time operator. When a punk threatens to spill the whole business to the socialite's husband, she decides that she's bored with Joey anyway, dumping him and the club. Having had a taste of his own medicine, you'd think Joey would head back to the sweet kid who really loves him. Wrong. Some things never change, but you know what? He's still on his feet.

When Pal Joey opened in New York on December 25, 1940, it was greeted with startled but generally excellent reviews. With book by John O’Hara, based on a series of short stories in The New Yorker by Mr. O’Hara, music by Richard Rodgers, and Lyrics by Lorenz Hart, the show was resented by some critics for not following established musical comedy traditions. However, the New York Herald Tribune called it “an outstanding musicomedy.” It ran for 374 performances, a total surpassed in 1952 when a Broadway revival played 542 times – the longest run of any Rodgers and Hart show.
 
Though the book was highly praised for the telling of an integrated story with a knowing point of view, it is the Rodgers and Hart songs which have made the show unforgettable. “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” and “I Could Write a Book” are but two standards in a score that contains the show-stopping number “Zip” and the delightful “Den of Iniquity.”
 
Pal Joey is generally considered the pinnacle of the Rodgers and Hart collaboration. Richard Rodgers wrote of it in his autobiography, “It was the most satisfying and mature work that I was associated with during all  my years with Larry Hart.”