''Pump Boys and Dinettes'' is a

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...

written by a performance group of the same name. The group, Pump Boys and Dinettes, consists of John Foley, Mark Hardwick,

Debra Monk Debra Monk (born February 27, 1949) is an American actress, singer, and writer, best known for her performances on the Broadway stage. She earned her first Tony Award for the 1993 production of ''Redwood Curtain'' and won an Emmy Award for sev ...

, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel and Jim Wann. The members directed and starred in the Broadway production.

History

The musical was created by two friends who worked at

The Cattleman The Cattleman Retrieved on October 6, 2012. was a steakhouse in New York City founded in 1959 by restaurateur Larry Ellman. During its heyday, The Cattleman attracted media attention as an early example of a theme restaurant, and it became the ins ...

restaurant in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, dramatizing their experiences there. It started as a two-man act and then expanded. As Jim Wann, the show's principal author and composer recalled in 2010,

Productions

The musical premiered on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

on February 4, 1982, at the Princess Theatre and closed on June 18, 1983, after 573 performances. The cast featured

, Cass Morgan, John Foley, Mark Hardwick and John Schimmel. It had premiered at the Chelsea West Side Arts Theatre on July 10, 1981, moving to the Colonnades Theatre (

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

) in October 1981. The show played in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

's West End at the

Piccadilly Theatre The Piccadilly Theatre is a West End theatre located at 16 Denman Street, behind Piccadilly Circus and adjacent to the Regent Palace Hotel, in the City of Westminster, London, England. Early years Built by Bertie Crewe and Edward A. Stone ...

from September 20, 1984, to June 8, 1985, and transferred to the

Albery Theatre Albery is a name. It may refer to: ;People by given name *Albery Allson Whitman (1851−1901), African American poet, minister and orator ;People by surname: *A. S. Albery, British politician *Bronson Albery (1881−1971), English theatre director ...

from June 11, 1985, to September 2, 1985. The production starred, amongst others, Paul Jones,

Clodagh Rodgers Clodagh Rodgers (born 5 March 1947) is a retired singer and actress from Northern Ireland, best known for her hit singles including " Come Back and Shake Me", "Goodnight Midnight", and "Jack in the Box". Career Rodgers was born in Warrenpoin ...

, Joe Brown,

Brian Protheroe Brian Protheroe (born 16 June 1944) is an English musician, actor and narrator. He is best known for his first single, "Pinball", which was released in August 1974, and entered the UK Singles Chart at number 40 and reached a peak of number 22. ...

Carlene Carter Carlene Carter (born Rebecca Carlene Smith; September 26, 1955) is an American country music singer and songwriter. She is the daughter of June Carter Cash and her first husband, Carl Smith. As of 2020, since 1978, Carter has recorded 12 album ...

and

Kiki Dee Pauline Matthews (born 6 March 1947), better known by her stage name Kiki Dee, is an English singer. Known for her blue-eyed soul vocals, she was the first female singer from the UK to sign with Motown's Tamla Records. Dee is best known for h ...

. The show played for many years in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

at the

Apollo Theater The Apollo Theater is a music hall at 253 West 125th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (Seventh Avenue) and Frederick Douglass Boulevard (Eighth Avenue) in the Harlem neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is a not ...

on Lincoln Avenue. A 1983 touring version of the show featured former pop star

Nicolette Larson Nicolette Larson (July 17, 1952 – December 16, 1997) was an American singer. She is perhaps best known for her work in the late 1970s with Neil Young and her 1978 hit single of Young's "Lotta Love", which hit No. 1 on the Hot Adult Contem ...

. Larson's performance in the show was well-received, and it began a brief foray into

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

for her. On July 16–19, 2014, the show was revived for five performances at

New York City Center New York City Center (previously known as the Mecca Temple, City Center of Music and Drama,. The name "City Center for Music and Drama Inc." is the organizational parent of the New York City Ballet and, until 2011, the New York City Opera. and th ...

as part of the ''

Encores! Encores! is a Tony-honored concert series dedicated to performing rarely heard American musicals, usually with their original orchestrations. Presented by New York City Center since 1994, Encores! has revived shows by Irving Berlin, Rodgers & Ha ...

Off-Center'' program. The cast featured

Hunter Foster Hunter Foster (born June 25, 1969) is an American musical theatre actor, singer, librettist, playwright and director. Career After touring in several shows and playing on Broadway, in 2001 he was cast in his breakthrough role of Bobby Strong i ...

, Mamie Parris, Randy Redd, Katie Thompson and Jordan Dean. On July 22, 2018, the original cast (save Mark Hardwick, who died in 1991) performed two full-score concert versions of the show at

Feinstein's/54 Below 54 Below is a cabaret and restaurant in the basement of Studio 54 in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Owned by Broadway producers Steve Baruch, Richard Frankel, Marc Routh and Tom Viertel, 54 Below has hosted shows by such performers as Patt ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. The musical tells the story of four men (L.M., Jackson, Jim and Eddie) who work at a

gas station A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Gasoline ...

and two waitresses (sisters Prudie and Rhetta Cupp) at the Double Cupp Diner, located somewhere between Frog Level and Smyrna,

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. The music is mostly from the

country rock Country rock is a genre of music which fuses rock and country. It was developed by rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These musicians recorded rock records using country themes, vocal s ...

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...

genres. They perform on guitars, piano, bass and kitchen utensils. The

original cast album A cast recording is a recording of a stage musical that is intended to document the songs as they were performed in the show and experienced by the audience. An original cast recording or OCR, as the name implies, features the voices of the sho ...

was released by

CBS Records CBS Records may refer to: * CBS Records or CBS/Sony, former name of Sony Music, a global record company * CBS Records International, label for Columbia Records recordings released outside North America from 1962 to 1990 * CBS Records (2006), founde ...

in the U.S. Its recording of "The Night Dolly Parton Was Almost Mine" reached number 67 on the

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

charts. In 2021, Porchlight Music Theatre premiered a new song written by Jim Wann for this Chicago production, "Surf Castin' Man." Porchlight's production was directed by Daryl Brooks, music directed by Robert Reddrick and choreographed by Rueben D. Echoles. "Surf Castin' Man" was performed by Frederick Harris with the cast that also included Rafe Bradford, Shantel Cribbs, Ian Paul Custer, Melanie Loren and Billy Rude.

Other media

''Pump Boys and Dinettes on Television'' was a

pilot episode A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distri ...

for a series adaptation of the show featuring the Broadway cast and appearances by Ron Carey and

Tanya Tucker Tanya Denise Tucker (born October 10, 1958) is an American country music singer and songwriter who had her first hit, "Delta Dawn", in 1972 at the age of 13. Over the succeeding decades, Tucker became one of the few child performers to mature int ...

. It aired on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

on August 15, 1983, but a series was never ordered.

Songs

''Lyrics and music by Jim Wann (unless otherwise noted)'' ;Act I *Highway 57 — Company *Taking It Slow (Music and lyrics by John Foley, Mark Hardwick and John Schimmel) — Pump Boys *Serve Yourself — L.M. *Menu Song (Music and lyrics by Cass Morgan and Debra Monk) — Dinettes *The Best Man — Prudie Cupp *Fisherman's Prayer — Pump Boys *Caution: Men Cooking (Music and lyrics by Cass Morgan, Debra Monk and John Foley) — Pump Boys *Mamaw — Jim *Be Good or Be Gone — Rhetta Cupp *Drinkin' Shoes (Music and lyrics by Cass Morgan, Debra Monk and Mark Hardwick) — Company ;Act II *Pump Boys — Pump Boys *Mona — Jackson *T.N.D.P.W.A.M. (The Night Dolly Parton Was Almost Mine) — L.M. *Tips (Music and lyrics by Cass Morgan and Debra Monk) — Dinettes *Sister (Music and lyrics by Cass Morgan) — Dinettes *Vacation — Company *No Holds Barred (Music and lyrics by Cass Morgan) — Company *Farmer Tan — L.M. and Dinettes *Highway 57 (Reprise) — Company *Closing Time — Company

Awards and nominations

Original Broadway production

Notes

External links

* * {{IBDB show
History and background

''Pump Boys and Dinettes''
revived in New York in 2011 by Numero Uno Productions 1981 musicals Broadway musicals Plays set in North Carolina West End musicals