About the work
The Pajama Game is a musical by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross (music and lyrics) with a book by George Abbott and Richard Bissell, premiered on Broadway in 1954. It won the Tony Award for Best Musical and was the songwriting duo's breakthrough.
Plot
At a pyjama factory in Iowa, the workforce demands a pay rise of seven and a half cents. Into the labour dispute falls the love story between Babe Williams, the leader of the grievance committee, and Sid Sorokin, the new plant superintendent. The personal and the political come into conflict as the two stand on opposite sides of the wage struggle. With wit and charm, the labour dispute and the lovers' quarrel are finally resolved together for the good.
Cultural significance
The Pajama Game is one of the few musicals to place a labour dispute at its centre, and it charms with its spirited numbers Hey There and Hernando's Hideaway. Bob Fosse delivered one of his first iconic choreographies with the number Steam Heat. The 1957 film with Doris Day cemented the work's reputation as an optimistic Broadway classic of the 1950s.