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Pajama Game
Adler is writing two new songs for the score, which includes such hits as Hey There, Small Talk, Steam Heat and Hernando's Hideaway. The original book by George Abbott and Richard Bissell will be revised by playwright Peter Ackerman, who co-wrote the screenplay for the movie Ice Age.
Connick appeared on Broadway with his band in 1990, and he wrote the score for Thou Shalt Not, a musical based on Emile Zola's novel Therese Raquin, transplanted from France to New Orleans. It had a three-month run on Broadway in 2001.
A strike is imminent at the Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory. The Union is seeking a wage rise of seven and a half cents an hour. Sid and Babe are in opposite camps yet a romance is born between them. At first Babe rejects him and Sid is forced to confide his feelings to a Dictaphone. During the picnic for the factory workers he makes better progress but their estrangement is reinforced when they return to the factory. A go-slow is staged by the Union, strongly supported by Babe. Sid, as factory superintendent, demands an 'honest day's work' and threatens to fire slackers. Babe is enraged by his attitude and kicks her foot into the machinery, causes a general breakdown and is immediately fired by Sid. Hines, the popular efficiency expert, is in love with Gladys the President's secretary. Periodically, he brings a more optimistic outlook to the life of the factory. Becoming convinced that Babe's championship of the Union is justified; Sid simulates an interest in Gladys by taking her out for the evening to the night club, Hernando's Hideaway. Through her help he is eventually able to gain access to the firm's books and discovers that the boss has been adding to his price the pay increase demanded by the workers. Sid then brings about his boss, Hasler's, consent to a pay rise and is able to bring peace to the factory and to his love life. Everyone goes out to celebrate - at Hernando's Hideaway.
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Artist Biography - Pajama Game
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 A strike is imminent in a pajama factory in Cedar Rapids, Iowa: The Union is seeking a wage raise of seven and a half cents an hour. Hines, the factory manager, keeps the girls on their toes by timing their production with a stopwatch and the girls respond by working at white heat in a race with the clock ("Hurry Up, Hurry Up, Hurry Up"). When Babe Williams, head of the Union grievance committee, comes to the plant's new superintendent, Sid Sorokin, to state the Union's case she finds herself attracted to him, even though she realizes he is the enemy camp. Sid also finds Babe highly appealing. When he tries to make a date with her, she rejects him, reminding him that he is the superintendent of the plant and she of the Grievance Committee. When she leaves the office Sid flips on his Dictaphone and confides to it his feelings about Babe ("Hey, There").
Harry Connick Jr., the crooning heart throb and jazz stylist, will star next season in a Broadway revival of The Pajama Game, one of the musical theatre's biggest hits of the 1950s.
Connick will play the role originated in 1954 by John Raitt, according to Jeffrey Richards, a co-producer of the revival. Richards called Connick "an actor of enormous charisma and skill, a wonderful singer and a bona fide star."
The performer, best known these days for his role as Leo, the duplicitous husband on television's Will & Grace, will begin rehearsals after Labor Day. The musical will open sometime in November, Richards said Saturday.
The Pajama Game, which has a score by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, tells the story of labor unrest in an Iowa pajama factory and the romantic involvement between the plant supervisor (the role Connick will play) and a union activist, portrayed in the original by Janis Paige.
No other casting has been announced, although Richards said the production will be directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall, currently represented on Broadway by Wonderful Town.
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For more information , enjoy the official homepage of Pajama Game
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