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Pal Joey () est une rupture profonde avec ce Rodgers et Hart ont fait jusque là. La manière dont ils abordent la personnalité des personnages peut faire penser à ce que Sondheim fera 30 ans plus tard, par exemple dans Company ().
Le livret est inspiré d'une série d'histoires que John O'Hara avait écrites pour The New Yorker, sur un chanteur/animateur de boîte de nuit miteux (Gene Kelly) et les femmes qu'il séduit et abuse. Ce n'était pas une jolie histoire, et certains critiques, y compris le plus important, Brooks Atkinson du New York Times, ont constaté que les vertus évidentes du spectacle étaient minées par son histoire sordide: «Bien que Pal Joey a été conçu de manière experte, pouvez-vous puiser de l'eau douce dans un puit insalubre?»
Acte I
In Chicago in the late 1930s, singer/dancer Joey Evans, a charming "heel" with big plans, schemes to get his own nightclub. He auditions for an emcee job at a second-rate nightclub (You Mustn't Kick It Around). Joey gets the job and begins rehearsals with the chorus girls and club singer Gladys Bumps. Joey meets young and naïve Linda English outside a pet shop, and he impresses her with grandiose lies about his career. Linda innocently falls for Joey's line (I Could Write a Book). As the chorus girls are doing a song-and-dance number at the club that night (Chicago), Linda arrives with a date. Wealthy married socialite Vera Simpson arrives at the club and shows a definite interest in Joey. Joey plays hard-to-get and insults Vera, who walks out. Mike, the club owner, fires Joey, but Joey, believing Vera will be back, strikes a deal: if Vera doesn't come back within the next few days, Joey will leave without pay. The chorus girls continue with the show (That Terrific Rainbow); Linda, having witnessed Joey's caddish behavior, has left the club. Vera doesn't return, so Joey is fired. When Linda refuses to answer his calls, Joey calls Vera (What is a Man). After Joey's last night as emcee, Vera picks him up from the club and they start an affair (Happy Hunting Horn). Vera is glowing in the romance and sets Joey up with an apartment and expensive clothes (Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered). While shopping for clothes for Joey, he and Vera run into Linda, leaving Vera jealous and Linda distraught. Vera gives Joey his own nightclub, "Chez Joey", and Joey looks forward to rising to the top (Pal Joey/Joey Looks to the Future ballet).
Acte II
The chorus girls and singers from the old club have relocated to "Chez Joey", where they rehearse for the opening performance (The Flower Garden of My Heart). Melba, an ambitious reporter, interviews Joey, recalling her interviews with various celebrities, including Gypsy Rose Lee (Zip), especially notable given original star June Havoc was Lee's sister [In the 2008 revival, Gladys plays a "reporter" in a skit during the floor show at Chez Joey, performing "Zip" as a striptease]. Ludlow Lowell, Gladys' old flame, introduces himself as an agent with papers that Joey unthinkingly signs as the rehearsal continues (Plant You Now, Dig You Later). In Joey's apartment the next morning, Joey and Vera reflect on the pleasures of their affair (In Our Little Den). Linda overhears Gladys and Lowell plotting to use the papers Joey signed to blackmail Vera. [In the 2008 revival, Joey fires Gladys, and to get back at him, she conspires with Mike, the club manager, to blackmail Vera. Mike is forced into the scheme because Gladys threatens to have him fired because he is gay.] Linda calls Vera, who initially distrusts Linda; Vera confronts Joey, asking what his relationship is with Linda, and Joey responds defensively (Do It the Hard Way). Linda comes to the apartment to convince Vera, and Vera, seeing Linda's sincerity, now believes her. Vera and Linda agree that Joey is not worth the trouble (Take Him). Vera calls her friend the police commissioner, who arrests Gladys and Lowell. Vera throws Joey out and closes "Chez Joey" (Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered/span> reprise). Joey, now penniless, runs into Linda again outside the pet shop, and she invites him to dinner with her family. He joins for a meal and then they part as friends, with him claiming to have been cast in a nonexistent show in New York. In the 1952 revival, he was shown to have a change of heart, turning just before the curtain falls to follow her.