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SWEET BYE AND BYE

Musical in 2 acts by S.J. Perelman and Albert Hirschfeld; Lyrics by Ogden Nash; Music by Vernon Duke

Schubert Theatre, New Haven - 10 October, 1946 (No Broadway opening)

Synopsis

It is the year 2076, and the tri centennial of America's birth is being celebrated with the raising of the time capsule buried during the 1939 World's Fair. (Flushing - and most of Long Island - has been underwater since the great hurricane of 2064.) As a team of scientists unpack its contents, they discover a note bestowing the controlling interest in Futurosy, the largest candy cartel in the world, to the eponymous descendant of a Mr. Solomon Bundy. Suddenly, the race is on to find this man, who will instantly inherit a position of great power and wealth.

Solomon Bundy, it turns out, is a humble tree surgeon employing his trade in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. In
his devotion to a dying art and desire for a simple life, Solomon feels he was "Born Too Late." Little does
he know how much his life is about to change when he's summoned to the offices of Futurosy by the company's boisterous general manager, Egon Pope. Bundy is awed and bewildered by his new surroundings; while the Futurosy executives go all out to please to him, it's clear the new president is going to need a lot of help if he's ever going to act the part. Pope calls in Diana Janeway, renowned personality consultant and CEO-maker, to lend a hand in remodeling Bundy.

With Diana's help behind the scenes, Bundy begins to build self-confidence and develop untapped social skills, while Diana, for her part, finds herself charmed by his candour and sincerity. As the pair grow closer, Bundy's two secretaries, Misses Pittman and Bubbles, discuss this budding office romance and offer their differing views on dating.

Within a few weeks, business is booming, and the entire company is called to Futurosy Park to honour Bundy's achievements. But when Solomon arrives, it's clear that there's been a change in him: after months of being flattered by yes-men, viewing Pope as a role model, and memorizing Diana's lessons in corporate chicanery, the meek tree-surgeon has become as smug and self-satisfied as his colleagues. When a giant statue in his image is unveiled, Bundy accepts it with a speech so self-congratulatory that even Diana is offended. She breaks off their affair, and Bundy is left alone, with her stinging words echoing inside his head. His confusion turns to pain and anger as he realizes the people on whom he's depended for months were never truly on his side.

In Act II, Solomon Bundy resolves to take back the reins of his own life and embarks on a series of life-lessons. First he ventures to "Executives Anonymous," a haven for tyrannical bosses run by the mercurial Dr. Knife. Three particularly rapacious executives step forward and testify to why they became so devious rousing the entire congregation into a frenzy of rapturous greed. Realising that he wants no part of the corporate class anymore, Bundy flees the scene.

Diana, meanwhile, has come to accept her own complicity in Solomon's undoing: she was the one, after all, who took an unpretentious tree-surgeon and turned him into just another corporate clone. She vows to track him down, accepting that his only crime was behaving "Just Like a Man."

Bundy next seeks refuge in the cargo hold of a space-liner, where his only companion is a hobo "riding the rails" late-21st-century style. The tramp diagnoses Solomon as suffering from "time spasm" and sells him a cure-all - which turns out to be nothing more than a vial filled with "rain water and a couple raisins." Telling Bundy that "you can sell anything with a good enough pitch," the tramp gives him a better understanding of the world and how to live in it. Resolved to reconcile with Diana, Bundy makes a dramatic escape, parachuting down to an Eskimo village in the North Pole.

At the head offices of Futurosy, everyone is wondering "Where Is Bundy?" when word arrives that he's being held for ransom by an Eskimo chief, Noodnik. Diana rushes to the North Pole to secure Bundy's release, arriving just as Noodnik's daughter Kimona is making her own play for Bundy, teaching him that in love you go after what you want. But before Diana and Solomon can reunite, the Eskimos capture Diana (they put her in "the deep freeze," as Noodnik calls it) and prepare a ritual sacrifice. Pope swoops in and frees Solomon and Diana with a healthy outlay of cash.

Back at Futurosy, Pope denounces Bundy's abandonment of corporate life, but Bundy turns the tables by declaring he has found the greatest candy invention yet, a vial containing a self-reproducing chocolate. There's only one catch: it must be made available to everyone free of charge, like the public parks he cherished as a tree surgeon. Horrified, Pope offers him anything he wants in exchange for the vial, and Bundy gladly exchanges the tramp's bogus concoction for his own freedom and the chance to focus on his relationship with Diana. For the first time, Bundy - the man who had previously longed for "a time gone by" - finds himself looking forward to a world of limitless possibilities, particularly if that future includes a life with Diana.

Musical Numbers

  1. Prologue
  2. Sweet Bye and Bye
  3. "Scientists Scene"
  4. Born Too Late
  5. Ham That I Am
  6. "Solomon at Futurosy"
  7. Yes, Yes
  8. As You Were Saying
  9. Diana
  10. Factory Ballet
  11. Too Enchanting
  12. I Says to Him
  13. Let's Be Young
  14. "Diana Says Goodbye"
  15. Round About
  16. Executives Anonymous
  17. Knife's Recitative
  18. Our Parents Forgot to Get Married
  19. My Broker Told Me So
  20. Just Like a Man
  21. Utility Polka
  22. It's Good
  23. Where is Bundy?
  24. The Sea-Gull and the Ea-Gull
  25. Eskimo Bacchante
  26. Sweet Bye and Bye (reprise)

Cast

  • Announcer
  • Dr. Moon
  • Miss Parker
  • Grover Slump
  • Boy in Park
  • Solomon Bundy
  • Girl in Park
  • Egon Pope
  • Futurosy Voice
  • Diana Janeway
  • Miss Pittman
  • Miss Bubbles
  • Buddy Worth
  • Dr. Knife
  • Executive 1
  • Executive 2
  • Executive 3
  • Tramp
  • Kimona
  • Noodnik

Instrumentation

Violin; Viola; Cello; Woodwinds; Trumpet; Trombone; Harp; Piano; Bass; Drums/Percussion