A sequel to the 1879 Henrik Ibsen play A Doll's House, it told the story of what happened to the lead character, Nora, after she left her husband and her old life behind to face the world on her own; in doing so, it examined several aspects of feminism and the ways in which women are treated.

A Doll's Life opened on Broadway at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on September 23, 1982, in a production directed by Hal Prince and starring Betsy Joslyn, George Hearn and Peter Gallagher.

Set within the framework of a contemporary rehearsal of Henrik Ibsen's classic play A Doll's House, it addresses the question of what might have transpired after Nora slammed the door and abandoned her tyrannical husband Torvald.

[1][2] Frank Rich of the New York Times wrote that "three legendary Broadway hands - Harold Prince, Betty Comden and Adolph Green - have inflated a spectacularly unpromising premise with loads of money, good intentions and hard work, only to end up with a show that collapses in its prologue and then skids into a toboggan slide from which there is no return."

"[4] According to John Kenrick, the musical had "an almost operatic score, but the book droned on about the unfairness of life and an overly-elaborate Hal Prince production only made matters worse.