Do Re Mi (musical)

Do Re Mi
Original Broadway Cast Recording
Music	Jule Styne
Lyrics	Betty Comden Adolph Green
Book	Garson Kanin
Productions	1960 Broadway 1961 West End 1999 Broadway concert

Do Re Mi is a musical with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and a book by Garson Kanin, who also directed the original 1960 Broadway production. The plot centers on a minor-league con man who decides to go (somewhat) straight by going into the business of juke boxes and music promotion. The musical introduced the popular songs "Cry Like the Wind" and "Make Someone Happy".

Hubie Cram is "a loser endlessly scheming to win big." His long-suffering patient wife Kay urges him to "Take a Job," while he plots. He finds three pals, Fatso O'Rear, Brains Berman and Skin Demopoulos, and they scheme to enter the juke-box business ("It's Legitimate"). Soon they have 300 juke-boxes, which they plan on selling to John Henry Wheeler, a record producer. Hubie discovers a naive singer, Tilda Mullen, and they plan their future ("Ambition"). At a fancy nightclub Hubie explains, and demonstrates, gangster's behavior that he learned from watching the Late Late Show. Kay compares her abandoned comfortable existence with the insecurity of life with Hubie ("Adventure"). Tilda and Wheeler fall in love ("Make Someone Happy"). In the end Hubie realizes that he has nothing except a wonderful marriage.

The musical was notable for its elaborate scenic design by Boris Aronson, who conceived the set as an enormous pop art jukebox and used extremely novel forms like collage in his design. The curtain of juke boxes "evoked a cathedral's stained glass effect." In a scene in a night club, the tables had drawn figures instead of actors, and the actors would talk with these drawings. And in the "Fireworks" number, black light is used to reveal shooting stars and Roman candles as Tilda and John's love affair explodes in song.

The musical opened on Broadway at the St. James Theatre on December 26, 1960, transferred to the 54th Street Theatre on December 25, 1961 and closed on January 13, 1962 for a total of 400 performances. Scenic design was by Boris Aronson, assisted by Ming Cho Lee and Lisa Jalowetz, costume design by Irene Sharaff with assistance from Florence Klotz, and choreography was by Marc Breaux and Dee Dee Wood. The producer was David Merrick.