Say, darling

By Richard Pike Bissell

Subjects: Broadway, semi-autobiographical novel, Musical theater, popular fiction, Drama

Description: Say, Darling is the fictional story of how the novel 7 1/2 Cents (also by Richard Bissell) became the Broadway musical, The Pajama Game. The story revolves around a Midwestern man who has written a successful book. It is optioned by Broadway producers and they contact him to come to New York to talk about adapting the book into a musical. The semi-autobiographical novel was turned into a Broadway play in 1958. It contained (from Wikipedia) "nine original songs with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and music by Jule Styne, all of the songs were presented as either rehearsal or audition material and not as the thoughts or feelings of the characters." so that some conclude that Say, Darling was, indeed, a Broadway musical. The first people listed are fictional characters from the novel. George Abbott and Harold Prince are 2 people Richard Bissell worked with on Pajama Game and he based 2 characters in the novel on them. The other names are actors who played characters in the Broadway production.