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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 lifelessons. 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,

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