I Can Get It for You Wholesale

I Can Get It For You Wholesale
Broadway Opening Playbill
Music	Harold Rome
Lyrics	Harold Rome
Book	Jerome Weidman
Basis	Novel by Jerome Weidman
Productions	1962 Broadway

I Can Get It for You Wholesale is a musical, produced by David Merrick, music and lyrics by Harold Rome, and book by Jerome Weidman, based on his 1937 novel of the same title. It marked the Broadway debut of 19-year-old Barbra Streisand, who was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical. The story is set in the New York City Garment District in 1937, during the Great Depression, and the songs utilize traditional Jewish harmonies evocative of the setting and the period of the show.

In the album Just for the Record, Streisand recalls, "My first audition for the show was on the morning after Thanksgiving in 1961. Since the action took place in the 1930s, I showed up in a '30s fur coat that I'd bought in a thrift shop for $10. I sang three songs, including my new standby "A Sleepin' Bee". They asked me to come back and gave me "Miss Marmelstein" to learn for my second audition a few hours later." Harold Rome said, "The 'Miss Marmelstein' number was written before the casting of Barbra Streisand in the role, but her part was then enlarged. Somebody is that good ... you try to use them as much as possible."

The musical premiered on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre on March 22, 1962. Directed by Arthur Laurents and choreographed by Herbert Ross, it starred Elliott Gould as Harry Bogen. In addition to Streisand in the small role of Bogen's secretary, Miss Marmelstein, the supporting cast included Lillian Roth as Mrs. Bogen and Marilyn Cooper as Ruthie Rivkin, with Harold Lang, Bambi Linn, Ken LeRoy, and Sheree North. On October 1, it transferred to The Broadway Theatre, where it closed on December 9 after a total run of two previews and 300 performances. Gould and Streisand later married.