Produced by Kermit Bloomgarden and Lynn Loesser (Frank’s wife of 20 years), “The Most Happy Fella” opened at the Imperial Theatre on Broadway on May 3, 1956, settling in for a run of 676 performances. Even in a season that gave us “My Fair Lady”, “Candide” and “Bells Are Ringing”, MHF was hailed as an extraordinary musical drama and a missing link between Broadway and opera. (Frank Loesser himself called it a musical comedy – “with a lotta music.”) The original cast included Metropolitan Opera baritone Robert Weede as Tony, Jo Sullivan (who Loesser later married) as Rosabella, popular band singer Art Lund as Joe, big-voiced Susan Johnson as Cleo, and country personality Shorty Long as Herman. In an unprecedented move, the score was recorded by Columbia Records in its entirety on three LP discs.
MHF was revived on Broadway in 1979 for 53 performances with Giorgio Tozzi as Tony. The 1991-92 season saw not only the smash Broadway revival of “Guys and Dolls”, but two major revivals of “The Most Happy Fella.” The first, a limited engagement by the New York City Opera at Lincoln Center, opened on September 4, 1991 and played 10 performances in repertory. Four months later, a duo-piano version, transferred from the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut to the Booth Theatre on Broadway and ran for 229 performances. That production, recorded on a single highlights disc by RCA, saw Spiro Malas as Tony, Sophie Hayden as Rosabella, Charles Pistone as Joe, Liz Larsen as Cleo, and Scott Waara, who won the Tony Award for his portrayal of Herman