PAJAMA GAME

Though it used to be said that Broadway musicals (some of them, anyway) were intended for "the tired businessman," they were not usually about business until The Pajama Game. And not only was the show set in a factory, the story also revolved around a labor dispute. But the show managed to lightly poke fun at its subject matter while actually focusing on a traditional romantic plot, and, most important, it boasted a frisky score by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, a young songwriting team making a transition from Tin Pan Alley to the musical theater. They brought with them a knack for the kind of novelty material that was finding success in the pop music market. Adler and Ross could write more conventional show music fare in the Rodgers & Hammerstein mold and even introduce new wrinkles to it, but they excelled at witty numbers, and, not surprisingly, they also wrote some hits. Both "Hernando's Hideaway," and "Steam Heat" reached the Top Ten, and Rosemary Clooney took "Hey There" to number one in September. It says a lot about the overall quality of the cast that the film version retained nearly all the principals (including John Raitt and Carol Haney), only replacing Janis Paige with the more bankable Doris Day. Despite the novelty quality of some of the material, The Pajama Game retained its freshness over the decades, and the Original Broadway Cast Recording remained the recording to own. The 2000 CD reissue added nine minutes of previously unreleased material. William Ruhlmann.

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