Writing a Darker Musical Fairy Tale

Betty Comden and Adolph Green wrote both the book and lyrics for the musical Subways Are for Sleeping, which opened in December 1961. Based on a book of the same title by Edmund G. Love, the show had been something they had been working on for nearly four years. Timing and changes in the artistic team had caused the delays and were precursors to the show’s very rocky out-of-town tryout, during which Comden and Green rewrote the central plot of the musical. Their ministrations didn’t sway critics by the time the production reached Broadway, and the show, which had Green’s wife, Phyllis Newman, in a featured role, had a run of only six months.