Cocktail Party Fact: How to Succeed began life as a series of articles in Playboy magazine, was then turned into a book, then a musical, and finally, a movie musical.

Here’s the Plot: This savage musical satire traces the meteoric rise of J. Pierrepont Finch (”Ponty”) from window washer to Chairman of the Board of World Wide Wickets. Ponty has a book called How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, which offers a simple step-by-step process for moving up the corporate ladder without any genuine effort or talent. The show draws a corporate world so complicated, corrupt, and large that it’s possible to lie and cheat your way to the top without ever getting caught. It’s this detail that makes the story of How to Succeed possible. Finch learns from the book that his greatest advantage is the knowledge of what a lumbering giant the modern corporation is. Everyone at World Wide Wickets is a monster, an incompetent, or both, all trying to get what they want no matter how much they step on others in the process. Finch is in many ways just as big a monster as the executives he tramples, but because those he dupes are unprincipled jerks, we enjoy seei ng them get what we think they deserve. Finch is amoral and unethical, but we still love watching his triumphs as he methodically makes his way to the top. MORE…

Cocktail Party Fact: There’s a moment late in Act I when the mean, ugly old witch drinks a potion and turns into a beautiful young woman. On Broadway, this was accomplished by substituting a double for the witch just before the transformation, using pre-recorded dialogue. Then when the flashpot went off, the actress really playing the witch stepped in looking gorgeous. MORE…

Cocktail Party Fact: After its trial run, it took Jekyll & Hyde about 7 years to reach Broadway. And before its trial performance, RCA London put out a recording of the score’s first draft featuring Colm Wilkinson as Jekyll and Hyde. MORE…

Cocktail Party Fact: Andrew Lloyd Webber and Trevor Nunn (who had directed Cats) began working on an early version of Aspects of Love in the early 1980s. Lloyd Webber decided at some point that the material was not appropriate for the story, so he stopped and turned his attention to the Phantom of the Opera, reusing many of the tunes he had written for Aspects. When an early draft of Phantom was presented, Nunn was understandably upset that the songs he had worked on were being recycled and, even more so, that he had been left out of the new project. After Lloyd Webber had agreed that Hal Prince would direct Phantom, Nunn caused a bit of a ruckus and producer Cameron Mackintosh fired Prince and hired Nunn to direct. But Lloyd Webber was furious. He fired Nunn and re-hired Prince, who did eventually direct the show. MORE…

Cocktail Party Fact: Meredith Willson based the musical on his own experiences growing up in Mason City, Iowa. The patented patter type rythmic songs, which we think of as unique to this show were a staple on his radio program. He also actually did play piccolo in John Philip Sousa’s marching Band. MORE…

Cocktail Party Fact: Legend has it that the genesis of this musical was Saint Subber’s observing the legendary husband and wife acting team of Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne on tour. On a far more trivial note, Kiss Me, Kate was the first American Musical Comedy to be presented in Poland. Make of that what you will. MORE…

Cocktail Party Fact: This story started out as a French play, which was adapted into a 1979 French film. The 1983 musical was based on the original play. There were two sequels to the film. And finally, the first film was remade as The Bird Cage with Robin Williams and Nathan Lane. There has been talk of a film version of the musical, but it hasn’t happened yet. MORE…

Cocktail Party Fact: When the show was out of town, Gertrude Lawrence, in the role of Anna asked Rodgers and Hammerstein to write a song for her to sing with the children. Rodgers took out a song which they had cut out of an earlier show, South Pacific with the title “Suddenly Happy.” Hammerstein wrote new lyrics and it became “Getting To Know You.” MORE…

Cocktail Party Fact: The original production of The Fantasticks has been running continuously since 1960: it is the longest running musical in the world. There have been over 10,000 productions of the show, including 500 foreign productions in 66 countries. There have been fifteen national touring companies. The original investors have now made a 10,000% profit on their initial investment (the original budget for the show was only $16,500). And all this, considering that the initial reception was bad enough that the producer considered closing the show after its first week back in 1960. MORE…

Cocktail Party Fact: Larry L. King (no relation to the talk show host) had written an article for Playboy about the real Chicken Ranch, a Texas brothel that had been operating since the 1880s until a do-gooder TV reporter caused a stink and got it shut down. Director Peter Masterson read it and showed it to his friend songwriter Carol Hall, who already knew King. Though King was hesitant at first, they finally agreed to write a musical. King later wrote a book called The Whorehouse Papers describing the musical’s creative process. MORE…