Pal Joey plays final performance on Broadway

Roundabout Theatre Company's Broadway production of Pal Joey, music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Lorenz Hart, plays its final performance on 1 Mar 2009, as scheduled. The show played 85 regurlar and 37 previews performances.

Pal Joey opened at Studio 54 on 18 Dec 2008, following previews from 14 Nov 2008. The show was originally scheduled to end its limited engagement on 15 Feb 2009, but extended its run by two weeks.

The musical opened to good to luke-warm reviews: "Not much magic." (New York Theater Guide); "Joyless revival" (NY Times); "Doesn't inspire." (NY Daily News); "Seriously undercut by the gaping hole at its center." (NY Post); "Pumps much-needed fresh blood into a Broadway grown anemic." (Bloomberg); "Back, with ... ambition and charm intact." (AP)

The musical witnessed some back stage drama when understudy Matthew Risch replaced Christian Hoff in the title role of 'Joey Evans' after Hoff injured his foot.

Theatre gossip columnist Michael Riedel claimed the foot injury was used as an excuse to replace Hoff because Mary Rodgers, the composer's daughter, prefered Matthew Risch's portrayal of 'Joey Evans.'

Pal Joey also stars Stockard Channing (Vera Simpson) and Martha Plimpton (Gladys Bumps), along with Robert Clohessy (Mike), Jenny Fellner (Linda English), Daniel Marcus (Ludlow Lowell) and Steven Skybell (Ernest). The ensemble includes Timothy J. Alex, Brian Barry, Bahiyah Sayyed Gaines, Lisa Gajda, Anthony Holds, Nadine Isenegger, Mark Morettini, Kathryn Mowat Murphy, Abbey O'Brien, Hayley Podschun, Krista Saab and Eric Sciotto.

Set in Chicago in the late 1930s, Pal Joey is the story of Joey Evans, a brash, scheming song and dance man with dreams of owning his own nightclub. Joey abandons his wholesome girlfriend Linda English, to charm a rich, married older woman, Vera Simpson, in the hope that she�ll set him up in business.

The Rodgers & Hart score for Pal Joey includes �Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,� �I Could Write a Book,� �You Mustn�t Kick It Around,� and �Zip,� among others.

The new production of the Rodgers & Hart score for Pal Joey also features �I�m Talking to My Pal,� a song that had been dropped from the score during its out-of-town tryout, and now heard on Broadway for the first time.

The musical has a new book by Tony Award winner Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out), based on the original book by John O�Hara, with music direction by Tony Award winner Paul Gemignani (Lifetime Achievement Award), choreography by Graciela Daniele and directed by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Mantello (Assassins, Take Me Out.)

The design team features two-time Tony Award winner Scott Pask (sets), five-time Tony Award winner William Ivey Long (costumes), two-time Tony Award winner Peggy Eisenhauer and eight-time Tony Award winner Jules Fisher (lights) and Tony Meola (sound).

In 1939, author John O�Hara approached Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart to collaborate on a musical adaptation of his popular Pal Joey stories that had originally run in The New Yorker. The musical premiered on Broadway on 25 Dec 1940, in a production directed and produced by George Abbott, and starring Gene Kelly and Vivienne Segal.

While considered a success in 1940, a smash hit 1952 Broadway revival revealed the show as a true landmark Broadway musical, breaking new ground in subject matter, and featuring a score by Rodgers & Hart in their penultimate collaboration. The 1952 production of Pal Joey won 3 Tony Awards including Best Choreography and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical.

A film of the musical was made in 1957, starring Frank Sinatra, Rita Hayworth, and Kim Novak. Bob Fosse received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in the 1963 production and the 1976 production at Circle in the Square starred Dixie Carter.