WONDERFUL TOWN is a 1953 musical with a book written by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and music by Leonard Bernstein. The musical tells the story of the Sherwood sisters, "Ruth" and "Eileen," who aspire to be a writer and actress, respectively, seeking success from their basement apartment in New York City's Greenwich Village. It is based on Fields and Chodorov's 1940 play My Sister Eileen.
The show premiered on Broadway on February 25, 1953, where it ran for 559 performances, closing on July 3, 1954. It starred Rosalind Russell in the role of "Ruth Sherwood," Edie Adams as "Eileen Sherwood," and George Gaynes as "Robert Baker". The show won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Actress for Russell. Decca released the original cast album.
Columbia Pictures had made a non-musical film of MY SISTER EILEEN in 1942, which had also starred Rosalind Russell, and the studio retained movie rights to the property. Although most successful Broadway musicals of the 1950s were made into films, "Wonderful Town" was not. After discussions with the authors and producers of the musical, Columbia decided to save money by not buying the rights to "Wonderful Town." Instead, the studio decided to make its own musical version of "My Sister Eileen", and hired Jule Styne and Leo Robin to write the score. The subsequent musical film of MY SISTER EILEEN was released in 1955 and starred Betty Garrett as Ruth, Janet Leigh as Eileen, and Jack Lemmon as Robert Baker. No soundtrack from that film has ever been issued, although the Twilight Time Blu-ray of the film has an isolated score track (with some minor dialogue and effects).
That left the Broadway show available for a television adaptation. So, on November 30, 1958, CBS Television broadcast a live special of the musical, with Rosalind Russell (Ruth Sherwood), Jacquelyn McKeever (Eileen Sherwood), and Sydney Chaplin (Bob Baker). Two weeks prior to the broadcast, Columbia Records recorded a cast album, in stereo, which was released soon after the show aired. It was reissued on CD by Sony in 1991. In this fast patter number, Ruth gives Eileen some relationship advice, telling her that there are "One Hundred Easy Ways" to lose a man:
