The Pajama Game

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The Pajama Game is the game I'm in,
And I'm proud to be in The Pajama Game. I love it!
I can hardly wait
To wake and get to work at eight.
Nothing's quite the same as The Pajama Game!

The Pajama Game is a Broadway Musical scored by Jerry Ross and Richard Adler and based on the novel 7½ Cents, by Richard Bissell. Workers at the Sleep-Tite pajama factory are demanding a seven-and-a-half cent salary increase. Caught in the middle of this labor/management dispute are Sid Sorokin and Katherine "Babe" Williams, Star-Crossed Lovers stuck on opposite sides of the conflict. Can their relationship survive the negotiations?

The original production ran from 1954-1956, winning three Tony Awards[1] and there have been two revivals since: one in 1973, and another in 2006 (which won another two Tony Awards[2] and was nominated for an additional seven). A film adaptation was released in 1957, starring all of the original Broadway cast except for Janis Paige (Babe), who was replaced by Doris Day.


Tropes used in The Pajama Game include:

Why don't you stop all this small talk?
I've got something better for your lips to do

  • Solo Duet: "Hey There". Sid sings a duet with a recording of himself on a dictaphone.
  • Star-Crossed Lovers: Sid is the factory's superintendent and Babe is the head of the union's Grievance Committee, placing the two sweethearts at opposite ends of the quickly-escalating conflict between labor and management.
  • Title Drop: Right in the opening. "The Pajama Game is the game I'm in, and I'm proud to be in The Pajama Game."
  • William Telling: Heinsy tries to do this in his knife-throwing act. While visibly drunk.
  • Writers Cannot Do Math: In "Seven And A Half Cents," the characters tally up how much money they'd earn off of their 7.5-cent raise in the long run. They get it wrong.
  1. Best Musical, Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Carol Haney), and Best Choreographer (Bob Fosse)
  2. Best Revival of a Musical and Best Choreography