Theatre Register
They’re Playing Our Song

They’re Playing Our Song

Shows · They’re Playing Our Song

They’re Playing Our Song was based in part on composer Marvin Hamlisch’s own frequently stormy affair with his then lyricist-in-residence, Carole Bayer Sager. In this musical drame à clef, Vernon Gersch, a wise-cracking, neurotic songwriter who likes to spend his time telling his troubles to a tape recorder, and Sonia Walsk, a wise-cracking, neurotic lyric writer whose wardrobe is made up of used theatre costumes, tr…

Opened
1979
Performances
1,082
Type
Musical
Era
Revolution
Music: Marvin HamlischLyrics: Carole Bayer SagerBook: Neil Simon

Recordings 3 albums held

Licensing 2 entries

US Concord Theatricals Concord Theatricals available
UK Concord Theatricals Concord Theatricals available

Read from the licensor's own pages and catalogues. Rights move, and an empty row means we have not confirmed a publisher, not that the show cannot be licensed.

In the literature25 passages

Birch, Patricia Candide Grease Little Night Music, A Pacific Overtures They’re Playing Our Song You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-seventh-edition-stanley-green-cary-ginell#p387

A later musical with only two characters — but each with three alter egos — was the 1979 hit, They’re Playing Our Song. book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-green-stanley-green-kay-5th-ed-rev-and-updated-by#p244

/They’re Playing Our Song/, although a big hit, was a lackluster musical and didn’t represent Simon or his collaborators, Mar- vin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager, at their best. book:broadway-its-history-people-and-places-an-encyclopedia-bloom-ken-1949-2nd-ed-new#p517

He returned to Broadway, after another Hollywood hiatus, with 1979’s bouncy, long-run pop hit They’re Playing Our Song, with lyrics by Carol Bayer Sager and a slick, funny libretto by Neil Simon. book:broadway-musicals-the-101-greatest-shows-of-all-time-bloom-ken-1949-vlastnik-fra#p71

This became a sketchy, gimmicky musical with a negligible score pro- vided by the prototypes themselves. They're Playing Our Song was a severe letdown compared to Simon’s previous musicals, Little Me (1962), Sweet Charity (1966), and Promises, Promises (1968). book:more-opening-nights-on-broadway-a-critical-quotebook-of-compiled-by-steven-suski#p924

They’re Playing Our Song were all part of the season, but only the last two were successful. book:not-since-carrie-forty-years-of-broadway-musical-flops-ken-mandelbaum#p278

Passages naming this show, found by keyword across 178 books. Where this show turns up in the literature, not curated trivia about it.

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