Pajama Game Revival Will Not Reopen on Broadway; Tour Is Planned for 2007-2008

Plans for a commercial Broadway run of the not-for-profit Roundabout Theatre Company’s recent revival of The Pajama Game have been abandoned.

According to Jeffrey Richards, who was to have produced the commercial run of the musical with James Fuld, Scott Landis, and Ken Gentry of NetWorks, “There is currently no Broadway theater available for a show this size. We announced the Broadway run before the flurry of openings that happened in the spring; we had hoped that a theater would become available for the fall, but it hasn’t.” However, Richards said that there will be a national tour of the production in 2007-2008. No details of the tour have yet been announced.

Richards declined to comment on the possibility that the reluctance of actors to succeed Harry Connick, Jr., who starred as Sid Sorokin in the show and was generally considered to be its major drawing card at the box office, was a factor in the cancellation of the commercial Broadway run. Instead, he cited the marathon runs of such musicals as The Phantom of the Opera and Rent as impacting greatly on the availability of houses for new productions.

He also noted that several upcoming musicals are slated for Broadway theaters that have traditionally housed straight plays: “History Boys is at the Broadhurst; next is Les Miz. The Caine Mutiny was just at the Schoenfeld; next, A Chorus Line. The Jacobs had Glengarry Glen Ross and then Three Days of Rain; next, Martin Short. The Brooks Atkinson had The Odd Couple; next, the Twyla Tharp-Bob Dylan show [The Times They Are A-Changin’]. The Barrymore, which was always a straight play house, had Ring of Fire and now will have Company. Some of those shows could certainly have played in larger theaters, but the big musical houses aren’t available.”

At the Roundabout, The Pajama Game starred Connick, Kelli O’Hara, and Michael McKean. The production team was headed by Kathleen Marshall (direction and choreography), Derek McLane (set design), Martin Pakledinaz (costumes), Peter Kazcorowksi (lighting), and David Chase (musical direction). Based on Richard Bissell’s novel 7½ Cents, the musical was first seen on Broadway in 1954. It concerns the thorny love affair between a pajama factory superintendent and a union representative. The Richard Adler-Jerry Ross score includes such hits as “Hey There,” “Steam Heat,” and “Hernando’s Hideaway.”