The Pajama Game

Synopsis
The shop steward of a trade-union in a pyjama factory in Iowa, Babe Williams, falls in love with the new foreman, Sid Sorokin, who returns her affections. But when the employees demand a pay rise of 7.5 cents an hour, the two lovers’ idyll is severely tested by the realities of a social struggle.

With a nod towards our times
When he transformed Richard Bissell’s short story, 7 1⁄2 Cents, into a musical comedy, the director George Abbott never imagined that it would be so successful. Surrounded by a dream team, including Jerome Robbins to assist him with the stage direction, Richard Adler and Jerry Ross as creators of musical hits, or else Bob Fosse for the choreography, he came up with Broadway’s greatest success of 1954! It was a stroke of genius based on a love story upset by social turmoil, with a gallery of irresistible characters and music with a communicative energy. The version on offer today, thanks to the director Jean Lacornerie, clearly chimes with the preoccupations of our era. While respecting the spirit of the original score, the conductor Gérard Lecointe brings out the quintessence of this rousing music.