Billion Dollar Baby: seeking perspective on the Comden-Green-Robbins collaboration
Considering Billion Dollar Baby is a forgotten musical, there is an abundance of archival sources documenting the show and its immediate and later reception. The musical is intriguing for study since it documents an important gap for the collaborative team that produced On the Town and Wonderful Town and clarifies our understanding about the progression of this partnership. Even with its esteemed creative team, Billion Dollar Baby is rarely mentioned in Broadway literature. In fact, the discussion that does exist focusses on Leonard Bernstein and his rejection to compose the score to focus on his career in art music. It was Morton Gould who was called in to replace Bernstein.
This paper is based on research from my MA thesis and examines overlooked sources used to document the collaborations developmental work in Billion Dollar Baby. This includes scholarly materials such as unpublished scores, correspondence, and newspaper articles. In particular, there will be a focus on the genesis of the show and the troublesome tryout period to argue that the little Broadway literature on the show focuses on Bernstein’s lack of involvement rather than the collaborators. It will be concluded that these rich and diverse materials can shed new light on forgotten shows, like Billion Dollar Baby, and highlight the importance and gratification of studying lost musicals.