Tony Tuesday: PROMISES, PROMISES
Before Dolly Parton brought a film about office workers to the stage with 9 to 5, there was Promises, Promises. Based upon the 1960 film, The Apartment, and written by Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond, Promises Promises follows a junior insurance company accountant, Chuck Baxter, as he navigates the working world, desperately attempting to advance his career.
Protagonist Chuck takes extreme actions to gain the approval of his seniors by allowing them to use his apartment for their extramarital affairs.
Promises Promises opened at the Shubert Theatre in December 1968 and ran for 1281 performances, closing in January 1972. It went on to three US National tours in the 1970s with cast members including Tony Roberts, Betty Buckley and Donald O’Connor.
The next time it was performed in New York was when it was revived on Broadway in 2010, following a reading in 2008 with Sean Hayes and Anne Hathaway. Sean Hayes reprised his role as Chuck Baxter, alongside Kristen Chenoweth, Tony Goldwyn, Dick Latessa and Katie Finneran.
Promises Promises features songs from composer Burt Bacharach - ‘I Say A Little Prayer’ and ‘I’ll Never Fall In Love Again’ - which became popular hits for Dionne Warwick. Perhaps its most famous musical number is ‘Turkey Lurky Time’, the energetic song and dance number which closed Act One in the Broadway version. For the 2010 Broadway revival, another Dionna Warwick ballad from Bacharach, ‘A House Is Not a Home’, was added to end the first act.
The original Broadway production of Promises Promises received eight Broadway nominations, winning in two categories. Nominations included Best Musical, Best Direction of a Musical and Best Choreography, whilst Jerry Orbach and Marian Mercer took home the Best Leading Actor and Best Featured Actress Awards respectively.
When the musical returned to Broadway over 40 years later, it was nominated for three awards, once again including Best Choreography, and Katie Finneran won the Best Featured Actress Award at the 2010 Tony Award ceremony.
The music within the production received high critical acclaim outside of the Tony Awards, winning the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album in 1969 and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music in the same year.
Whilst Promises, Promises was still performing on Broadway, it opened on the West End at the Prince of Wales Theatre, with Tony Roberts as Chuck Baxter, who later starred in the US National Tour, and Tony Award winner, Betty Buckley. The show returned to the UK in 2017 with a production at the Southwark Playhouse. This production was directed by Bronagh Lagan and featured cast including Gabriel Vick, Daisy Maywood, Paul Robinson and John Guerrasio.
FACTS:
Music: Burt Bacharach
Lyrics: Hal David
Book: Neil Simon
Original Broadway Theatre: Shubert Theatre
Original Production Run: 1 December 1968 - 1 January 1972
Broadway Revival Theatre: Broadway Theatre
Broadway Revival Run: 25 April 2010 - 2 January 2011
TONYS:
Original Broadway production (1969):
NOMINATED: Best Musical, Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical - Jill O’Hara, Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical - Larry Haines and Edward Winter, Best Direction of a Musical – Robert Moore, Best Choreography - Michael Bennett
WON: Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical – Jerry Orbach, Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical – Marian Mercer
Broadway Revival (2010):
NOMINATED: Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical - Sean Hayes, Best Choreography - Rob Ashford, Best Orchestrations - Jonathan Tunick
WON: Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical - Katie Finneran
Highlights from the 2010 Broadway revival with Kristen Chenoweth and Tony Award winner, Katie Finneran
The original Broadway cast perform ‘She Likes Basketball’ and ‘Turkey Lurkey Time’ at the 1969 Tony Awards