Golden Boy

For his first offering as a Broadway producer, Hillard Elkins hit upon the idea that by changing the leading character in Clifford Odets’ 1937 drama Golden Boy from an Italian-American boxer named Joe Bonaparte to a Negro American boxer named Joe Wellington, the result would be a musical play of substance and significance. Odets himself agreed to write the libretto but his death during the show’s early stages created major problems that remained unsolved until playwright William Gibson took over the adaptation and Arthur Penn replaced the original director during the tryout.

Music

Charles Strouse

Lyrics

Lee Adams

Book

Clifford Odets, William Gibson