From the pages of Steinbeck, the drifters and dropouts along Cannery Row
spring to life in this uncommon story of love and hope. When Suzy, a
homeless girl, is picked up for stealing food, she's taken in by Fauna,
the big-hearted Madam of the Bear Flag Café (which is no café at all).
Here she meets Doc, a carefree marine biologist, and soon romance is in
the air. Rodgers & Hammerstein struck a new tone with Pipe Dream: warm and highly personal. It illuminates Rodgers & Hammerstein’s benevolence for outcasts who are infinitely capable
of every emotion and longing felt by the more fortunate members of
society. As sung by Doc at the top of the show, the soulful message is
simple: "It takes all kinds of people to make up a world." Is there a
better one?
The seventh musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar
Hammerstein II, Pipe Dream premiered on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre on
November 30, 1955. The original cast featured Helen Traubel, William Johnson
and Judy Tyler.