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''Pipe Dream'' is the seventh musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II; it premiered on Broadway on November 30, 1955. The work is based on John Steinbeck's short novel ''Sweet Thursday''—Steinbeck wrote the novel, a sequel to ''Cannery Row'', in the hope of having it adapted into a musical. Set in Monterey, California, the musical tells the story of the romance between Doc, a marine biologist, and Suzy, who in the novel is a prostitute; her profession is only alluded to in the stage work. ''Pipe Dream'' was a flop and a financial disaster for Rodgers and Hammerstein. Broadway producers Cy Feuer and Ernie Martin held the rights to ''Sweet Thursday'' and wanted Frank Loesser to compose a musical based on it. When Loesser proved unavailable, Feuer and Martin succeeded in interesting Rodgers and Hammerstein in the project. As Hammerstein adapted ''Sweet Thursday'', he and Rodgers had concerns about featuring a prostitute as female lead and setting part of the musical in a bordello. They signed operatic diva Helen Traubel to play Fauna, the house madam. As the show progressed through tryouts, Hammerstein repeatedly revised it, obscuring Suzy's profession and the nature of Fauna's house. ''Pipe Dream'' met with poor reviews, and rapidly closed once it exhausted its advance sale. It had no national tour or London production, and has rarely been presented since. No movie version of the show was made; the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization (which licenses their works) once hoped for a film version featuring the Muppets with Fauna played by Miss Piggy. == Inception == Following World War II, Cy Feuer and Ernie Martin started producing musicals together. Feuer was the former head of the music department at low-budget Republic Pictures; Martin was a television executive. Having secured the rights to the farce ''Charley's Aunt'', they produced it as the musical comedy ''Where's Charley?'', with a score by Frank Loesser. Among the backers of ''Where's Charley?'' were Rodgers and Hammerstein, which helped secure additional investment. The show was a hit and helped establish Feuer and Martin on Broadway—they would go on to produce ''Guys and Dolls''. In the aftermath of ''Guys and Dollss success, Feuer and Martin were interested in adapting John Steinbeck's 1945 novel ''Cannery Row'' into a musical. They felt that some of the characters, such as marine biologist Doc, would work well in a musical, but that many of the other characters would not. Steinbeck suggested that he write a sequel to ''Cannery Row'' that would feature the characters attractive to Feuer and Martin. Based on suggestions for the story line by Feuer and Martin, Steinbeck began to write ''Sweet Thursday''. ''Cannery Row'' is set in Monterey, California, before World War II. In ''Sweet Thursday'', Doc returns from the war to find Cannery Row almost deserted and many of his colorful friends gone. Even his close friend Dora, who ran the Bear Flag Restaurant, a whorehouse, has died, and her sister Fauna has taken her place as madam. A former social worker, Fauna teaches the girls how to set a table properly, hopeful they will marry wealthy men. Doc's friends Mack (Mac in ''Pipe Dream'') and Hazel (both men) are still around. They decide Doc's discontent is due to loneliness, and try to get him together with Suzy, a prostitute who has just arrived in Monterey. The two have a brief romance; disgusted by her life as a hooker, Suzy leaves the bawdy house and moves into an abandoned boiler. She decides she cannot stay with Doc, but tells her friends that if Doc fell ill, she would care for him. The accommodating Hazel promptly breaks Doc's arm as he sleeps, bringing the two lovers back together. At the end, Doc and Suzy go off to La Jolla to collect marine specimens together. Originally, Feuer, Martin and Steinbeck intended the work to be composed by Loesser, but he was busy with a project which eventually became ''The Most Happy Fella''. With Loesser's refusal, Feuer and Martin approached Rodgers and Hammerstein with their project, then titled ''The Bear Flag Café''. From the beginning, the prudish Hammerstein was uncomfortable with the setting, telling Feuer "We do family shows." However, Hammerstein found himself attracted to the characters. Doc and Suzy were culturally mismatched but drawn to each other, with Doc rather moody and Suzy somewhat intense. Similar pairings had led to success, not only in the pair's ''Carousel'' and ''South Pacific'', but in Hammerstein's work before his collaboration with Rodgers, such as ''The Desert Song'' and ''Rose-Marie''. During early 1953, Steinbeck sent Hammerstein early drafts of the novel. Rodgers was also concerned about the idea of having a prostitute be the female lead, but eventually gave in. The two agreed to write and produce the adaptation. As they worked with Steinbeck, Rodgers and Hammerstein, though renowned for such hits as ''Oklahoma!'', ''Carousel'', and ''South Pacific'', suffered a relative failure with the 1953 musical ''Me and Juliet'', a tale of romance among the cast and stagehands backstage at a musical. Before agreeing to do the ''Sweet Thursday'' project, the duo had considered other projects for their next work together, such as an adaptation of the film ''Saratoga Trunk''. A proposal made by attorney David Merrick to adapt a series of works by Marcel Pagnol to which Merrick held the stage rights fell through when the duo were not willing to have Merrick be an associate producer; Merrick took the project elsewhere, and it was developed into the hit ''Fanny''. Afterwards, Hammerstein stated, "Why the hell did we give up ''Fanny''? What on earth were we trying to prove? My God, that's a great story and look at some of the junk we've done!" 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pipe Dream (musical)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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