Promises, Promises is the Broadway musical adaptation of the 1960 American comedy-drama The Apartment. Neil Simon, Burt Bacharach, and Hal David adopted the Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond screenplay for the theater, with Simon handling the book, Bacharach handling the music, and David handling the lyrics. The musical proved as successful as the Academy Award winning film, selling Promises, Promises tickets for 1,281 performances on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre and 560 performances at the West End at the Prince of Wales Theatre.
The musical closely follows the plot of the movie. Chuck is a young man working for the Consolidated Life Insurance Company whose ambition leads him to lend out his apartment to executives searching for a place for their extramarital trysts in hopes that this favor will be returned in the form of a promotion. Promises, Promises complicates his life with an object of affection.
Fran is a waitress that works at the company restaurant. Chuck longs after from far away hoping that his occasional dining at the restaurant will one day lead to her noticing him. Eventually they do talk and do find something in common, baseball. Unfortunately, baseball is not all they have in common. She is also involved with the latest executive (J.D. Skeldrake) that has requested a key to his apartment. Skeldrake breaks off the affair with the waitress and Fran attempts suicide in Chuck's bedroom. Ultimately, Chuck is forced to choose between a certain future with the company and an uncertain future with the woman he adores.
