Looking for a genius on "Promises, Promises"

Well, you could start by renting the movie THE APARTMENT starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine. It's the basis for the show.

Very sixties musical given its Hal David/Burt Bacharach score. "What do you get when you fall in Love/" and the title tune will be most familiar.

Check out the movie Camp to see a snapshot of the choreography by Michael Bennett the shagadelic "Turkey, Lurkey Time"

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i have the cd of Promises, Promises!

I have the CD. You probably won't find it in stores as it is currently out of print.

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Updated On: 9/27/04 at 08:18 AM

I loved Promises, Promises with its terribly modern sounding Bacharach score (I believe it was the first Broadway show to use "pit backup singers")and its thrilling Michael Bennett choreography.

Jerry Orbach's Tony was richly deserved and he led a sublime supporting cast, full of faces familiar to theater, tv and filmgoers.

PROMISES, PROMISES is also one of the singular funniest Broadway musicals that ever existed. It is some of Neil Simon's best work.

Interestingly, this whole musical sprang from the pockets and mind of producer David Merrick (Hello Dolly!, 42nd Street) who wanted to do a musical with a book written by NEIL SIMON. Mr. Simon chose to adapt the Oscar Winning Best Picture, THE APARTMENT as a musical, and selected the pop team of Bacharach and David to write the music and lyrics and also demanded the show be directed by Robin Wagner. Neil Simon's "socks had been knocked off" by Robin Wagner's production of the off broadway play, The Boys In the Band and David Merrick agreed to Neil Simon's wish of having the musical Promises, Promises directed by Mr. Wagner.

Promises, Promises had as a "lead dancer" Donna McKechnie(Michael Bennett adored her and oddly enough was even married to her for a brief while) who did indeed stop the show cold during "Turkey Lurkey Time."

This kind of foreshadowed Donna's career and certainly is reflected in parts of the Cassie charachter Donna later played in A CHORUS LINE.

That same year 1776 won the best musical Tony beating out Promises, Promises and HAIR. I have always found that to be one of the oddest Tony awardings ever.

There are some musical passages of 1776 that are most enjoyable, but it is a show that works well as a sleep inducer. HAIR and PROMISES, PROMISES are both pretty much masterpieces. I wish one of those two shows had bested 1776 for the best musical Tony.

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The marriage happened shortly after "A Chorus Line" swept the Tony Awards in '76. Bennett got it into his head that the two of them should be the King and Queen of Broadway and the the final coronation would, of course, be a marriage (it was all his idea and using his legendary persuasive powers, got her to go along). While Bennett was bi-sexual, he had a decided preference -- one that doomed the marriage from the beginning (they only lived together for a month or two in his Park Avenue penthouse and were officially divorced by the end of a year).

They had been friends since they were teenagers (they met dancing on the tv show "Hullabaloo") and he helped her career in every way that he could, from the featured dance role in "Promises, Promises" to "Company" (when he was hired as choreographer, he insisted on bringing her on board in the role of Kathy and created "Tick-Tock" for her) and then her biggest success -- "A Chorus Line." They were very close and after the unprecedented success of ACL, I think he saw them as the next Fosse-Verdon (later Fosse-Reinking) tandem -- a marriage of master and muse .... though "the marriage" should never have involved actual matrimony.

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Yummie reading MargoChanning and TeacherofTheatre. Your posts on this subject are clear and interesting. More, more, MORE PLEASE!

I got to see Donna in "Tick Tock" at Dade County Auditorium when I was a very young guy. That must have been the National Tour.

Since I see Margo Sappington every so often (saw her in July, but it was an intermission and we didn't have enough time to talk Turkey), I will try to get stories about "PROMISES, PROMISES" from her. I bet the movie CAMP has everyone asking her about TURKEY LURKEY. She did tell me that at a recent party the three ladies tried to do some of the dance and couldn't remember it well enough.

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Updated On: 9/27/04 at 04:01 PM

I saw this show a number of times when it was playing and Orbach was wonderful.

A fun, sweet show.

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As far as the cast for this show, many went on to continued success: Jerry Orbach is now more famous for "LAW & ORDER" than anything he ever did on Broadway (most people don't even know he can sing), Donna McKechnie went on to win a Tony for "A Chorus Line" and Marian Mercer went on to play hostess Nancy Beebee on the television sit-com "It's A Living", but whatever happened to Jill O'Hara? She made her mark originating the role of "Sheila" in the New York Shakespeare Festival Production of "Hair" at the Public Theatre Off-Broadway. She was replaced by Lynn Kellogg when the show moved to Broadway. She then co starred with Joel Grey and Bernadette Peters in "George M!" She then won the lead in "Promises, Promises" and got a Tony nomination and then she disappeared. Anyone know what happened to her? I know her sister Jenny O'Hara (who actually replaced her in "Promises")
still acts because she was in "Mystic River".