Promises, Promises Broadway Tickets

View All Promises, Promises Tickets

View All Broadway Tickets

The Broadway Theatre
1681 Broadway
New York, NY 10019

About the Show Promises, Promises

When Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond made 1960's The Apartment, they couldn't have known that the film would have a life beyond the celluloid. And, yet, it did. Neil Simon teamed up with Hal David and Burt Bacharach to make a musical of the story and Promises, Promises was born.

Originally directed by Robert Moore and choreographed by Michael Bennett for its 1968 Tony Award-winning Broadway debut, the play has enjoyed numerous productions and revivals around the world. The first Broadway staging ran for 1,281 performances with Jerry Orbach and Jill O'Hara in the lead roles.

Of the production, the New York Times wrote, "Though the work featured memorable dance sequences by a choreographer on the rise named Michael Bennett, what really set it apart was its score, written by the solid-gold pop composer Burt Bacharach with lyrics by Hal David. Mr. Bacharach introduced to Broadway not only the insistently rhythmic, commercial-jingle buoyancy of 1960s' soft-core radio fare, but also a cinematic use of Teflon-smooth, offstage backup vocals."

Across the pond, Tony Roberts and Betty Buckley starred in a 1969 London production that enjoyed 560 shows and spawned a Grammy-winning cast album. Australia mounted a production the same year.

In 2008, Sean Hayes and Anne Hathaway participated in a reading, likely to judge interest in a modern-day revival. The new Broadway production came to pass, opening on April 25, 2010 with Hayes being joined by Kristin Chenoweth. Tony Goldwyn also appears.

In addition to the Dionne Warwick hits “I'll Never Fall in Love Again” and “Promises, Promises,” two more songs have been added to the repertoire for Chenoweth. They are “A House Is Not a Home” and another Warwick smash from 1967, “I Say a Little Prayer.”

The plot revolves around Chuck, a life insurance agent, and Fran, a waitress whom he admires from afar. The big wigs at Chuck's company often ask to use his apartment for secret dalliances with young women. When one of the bosses asks to use it for a tryst with Fran, things get complicated for Chuck. After several twists and turns in the storyline, the star-crossed lovers finally find each other.