Saturday Night

In April 1959, it was announced that Jule Styne and Joseph Kipness would produce Saturday Night, with Bob Fosse directing and choreographing. The first announcement stated that it would open in December 1959. A bit later it was announced that it would open at the 54th Street Theatre on January 21, 1960.

In early August 1959, the production was canceled, reportedly because after six weeks of auditions they could not find the right pair of young performers for the two leads. In the same New York Times column in which the cancellation was announced and casting problems were given as the reason, it was mentioned that ”there were reports of problems with Stephen Sondheim. . . . Mr. Sondheim acknowledged that there had been problems, but refused to discuss them.”

In Sondheim & Co., by Craig Zadan, Sondheim was quoted saying this about why the production was canceled: “When we started auditioning people, I got a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach, that I didn't want to regress. . . . It was a small, charming show, but I couldn't go ahead with it."

In Sam Wasson’s Fosse, Sondheim was quoted sayiing that Fosse wanted to star in it as well as direct and choreograph. Sondheim says that he had only seen Fosse perform in the movies but he “had every reason to believe [Fosse would] be fine in the part. So we started having auditions for other actors, and I think we had maybe one or two audition sessions, and I got a feeling in the pit of my stomach that I didn't want to go back to old work and so I stopped it. And that was that."