Ballroom (musical)

Ballroom
Original Cast Recording
Music	Billy Goldenberg
Lyrics	Alan Bergman Marilyn Bergman
Book	Jerome Kass
Basis	TV production Queen of the Stardust Ballroom
Productions	1978 Broadway

Ballroom is a musical with a book by Jerome Kass and music by Billy Goldenberg and lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman.

Based on Kass's teleplay for the 1975 Emmy Award-winning television drama Queen of the Stardust Ballroom, the plot focuses on lonely widow Bea Asher, who becomes romantically involved with Alfred Rossi, a mail carrier she meets at the local dance hall. Her dream of a happily-ever-after relationship is shattered when she discovers Alfred hasn't been as honest about his personal life as she thought.

After eleven previews, the Broadway production, directed and choreographed by Michael Bennett, opened on December 14, 1978 at the Majestic Theatre, where it ran for 116 performances. The cast included Dorothy Loudon as Bea and Vincent Gardenia as Alfred. The sets were by Robin Wagner, and Theoni V. Aldredge designed the costumes.

The production was Bennett's first project following A Chorus Line three years earlier.

Bea Asher has been widowed for a year, but while her family has virtually enshrined her late husband, Bea won't accept "widow" as her designation for the rest of her life. She has opened a thrift shop that amounts to an ongoing garage sale of her own belongings. When her friend Angie urges her to get out of the shop and start living again and suggests that she visit a local dance hall, the Stardust Ballroom, Bea agrees. Outside the hall that night, Bea summons her courage and goes in. The Stardust represents the American ballroom-dancing tradition that thrived in an earlier era; time seems to have flattened out. There are no young people here to carry on the tradition — but the Stardust regulars will keep the flame burning.