SKYSCRAPER Musical Comedy in 2 Acts, 25 Scenes. Book by Peter Stone. Based on the play Dream Girl by Elmer Rice. Music by James Van Heusen. Lyrics by Sammy Cahn. Directed by Cy Feuer. Dances and musical numbers staged by Michael Kidd. Scenery and lighting by Robert Randolph. Dance music arranged by Marvin Laird. Opened 13th November, 1965 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre and closed 11th June, 1966 (248 perfs). STORY ACT I In Georgina Allerton's bedroom in her Manhattan brownstone, our sleeping heroine is dreaming of cavaliers, apaches and other exotic characters fighting over her. She is awakened by her mother's telephone call. Mrs. A is making another of her regular calls urging her daughter to be smart and sell her house to the Bushman Construction Company, which is building a mammoth skyscraper on her block and needs her land. But Georgina, who is a leader in the fight to preserve historical buildings in New York, won't hear of such a thing. She much prefers to daydream that she has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Urban Prevention, but even her dream characters worry about her, and question her constant day dreaming. This hardly fazes Georgina. "What," she inquires gaily, "is so abnormal about imagination?" In the construction company's shack right outside Georgina's brownstone bastion, the brothers Bushman are discussing the lady's stubbornness. Older brother Bert, who hopes to inherit their father's business, cannot understand how Georgina could refuse his offer of $150,000. Younger brother Tim, an architect, whose aesthetic sensibility has forced him to leave the family building business is even more concerned that the new skyscraper, which is to be covered by a pimply metal exterior, will give the city of New York a case of acne. He warns his brother that no one can enjoy defacing the city's skyline and urges Bert to stop dong work he hates. Outside the construction shack, the foreman, Stanley, is angry with his men because they completely ignore two passing girls. The girls are insulted! "Where's your civic pride?" he asks plaintively, then briskly gives the men assignments in whistling, leering, smiling, and making appropriate comments. Back in the construction shack, Georgina, thinking Tim is a steel worker, demands to know why the company has cut off her electricity and punctured her gas pipes. Though his denials are to no avail, Tim is attracted to Georgina and asks her to have dinner with him. Georgina won't hear of such a thing; he is her enemy and she continues the quarrel. Downstairs in the brownstone where Georgina has an antique shop, The Litterbug, whose contents are more second hand than Second Empire and which has no customers, we meet her part-time assistant Roger Summerhill. He is a would-be film festival impressario who spends most of his time trying to get backing for this project. He becomes dejected because of his inability to raise money, and Georgina comforts him. After he leaves, Georgina daydreams that Roger is her reserved but dashing English lover. Bert Bushman, making his daily visit, snaps her out of her reverie and offers Georgina $165,000, which she angrily refuses. Because Roger is in such desperate need of money for his festival, he offers to help Bert break down Georgina's resistance. And what part of the pie does he want for his efforts? Just the Crust, replies Roger, and Bert agrees. In the midst of a daydream in which Georgina imagines Tim to be a complete clunkhead, the real Tim appears in her shop. He still tries to make a date with her. Once Tim has left, Georgina indulges in another
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