Fri, July 4th, 2008 at 3:58pm

This article was written by an associate of The Raytown Arts Council and does not necessarily reflect the views of The Stage Review.

When "The Pajama Game" opened on Broadway in 1954, Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times had this to say about the show: "The last new musical of the season is the best. It is The Pajama Game, which opened at the St. James last evening with all the uproar of a George Abbott show. He and Richard Bissell put the book together out of Mr. Bissell's recent novel, "7 1/2 Cents." Applying the good old football spirit to a strike in a pajama factory, the book is as good as most though no better. For, like the customers who are now going to pour into the St. James, Mr. Abbott is really interested in the color, humor and revelry of a first-rate musical rumpus. The Pajama Game fits those specifications exactly. Richard Adler and Jerry Ross have written an exuberant score in any number of good American idioms without self-consciousness. Beginning with an amusing satire of the work tempo in a factory, they produce love songs with more fever than is usual this year; and they manage to get through a long evening enthusiastically in other respects also."

The premise of the story is simple. Employees of the Sleeptite Pajama Factory are looking for a whopping 7 1/2 raise and they won't take "no" for an answer. Babe Williams is their feisty employee representative, but she may have found her match in the shop superintendent, Sid Sorokin. But when the two get together, they wind up discussing a whole lot more than job actions, and simplicity makes a quick exit! Fun and romance, song and dance, everything you're looking for in a musical. "The Pajama Game, winner of the 1955 Tony for the Best Musical and the 2006 Tony for Best Revival, is a delightful, sassy and fast-paced show featuring hit songs like "Hernando's Hideaway", "Hey There" and "Steam Heat".
About the perennial success of the play, Variety has this to say: "The Pajama Game... stands up a half-century thanks primarily to the buoyant song score, which blends earnest romance with satirical comedy and catchy lyrics that refuse to take themselves too seriously"

See the show at the Robert B. Atkin Performing Arts Center of Raytown High School, 6019 Blue Ridge Blvd. (South Door). Tickets are available at the Raytown Hy-Vee, 67th Street and Blue Ridge Blvd. Tickets are $8 in advance at the store or $10 at the door. Tickets for children 12 and under are $5.