Although it did not achieve much success it is notable due to the fact it is the last collaboration between writer-director duo Stephen Sondheim and Harold Prince.

In 1956 David Merrick, "for purposes of comparison, sent Sondheim a script by Sam Behrman of Irving Berlin's unproduced musical."

[4] Three songs from it ("Pour le Sport", "High Life", and "I Wouldn't Change a Thing") have been published in The almost unknown Stephen Sondheim.

The director/designer was John Doyle, who had become known for critically-acclaimed Broadway revivals of Sweeney Todd (in 2005) and Company (2006); it starred Michael Cerveris and Alexander Gemignani playing brothers Wilson and Addison Mizner respectively, Alma Cuervo as Mama, Claybourne Elder as Hollis, and William Parry as Papa.

[18] The musical opened at the Menier Chocolate Factory, London in previews on June 24, 2011, officially on July 6 and closed on September 18.

John Doyle was the director and designer, with a cast featuring Michael Jibson, David Bedella, and Jon Robyns.

[19] The U.S. regional premiere opened at Stages Repertory Theatre in Houston, Texas on May 22, 2013, directed by Kenn McLaughlin.

The cast featured Tom Frey and L. Jay Meyer, playing Wilson and Addison Mizner, respectively, along with Susan Shofner as Mama, Jimmy Phillips as Papa, and Michael McClure as Hollis.

[20] A production opened at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre on March 13, 2014, starring Andrew Rothenberg as Wilson and Michael Aaron Lindner as Addison.

In the later stage version, then titled Bounce, the character of Wilson's wife was developed into a secondary lead called Nellie.

For Road Show, Sondheim rewrote the opening number "Bounce" as "Waste," to reflect a darker tone.

He added an additional song, "Brotherly Love," for the Mizners, and rewrote "The Best Thing That Ever Has Happened" as a duet for Addison and Hollis.

After the 1933 death of Addison Mizner, people who knew him, including his estranged lover Hollis Bessemer, comment on his life and the way he squandered his talents ("Waste").

On his deathbed, Papa charges his sons with the task of using their gifts to shape America ("It's In Your Hands Now"), telling them that there's a "road" to follow.

Wilson seduces and marries Addison's first client, a rich widow, and fritters away her money on various flashy endeavours, including fixed boxing matches and horse races ("That Was A Year").

"), Addison decides to travel to Palm Beach to take advantage of the many rich people settling there who need houses built.

[23][page needed] The exaggerated tone was also kept because Sondheim and Weidman felt it suited the two brothers' attitudes in their own writings, such as Wilson's screenplays and Addison's autobiography.

In the workshopped Wise Guys, Addison's sexuality was only hinted at, but Sondheim and Weidman decided they had to address it more openly, and so the character of Hollis was created to give him a love interest.

"[23]: 234 Wilson's role in the Boca Raton fiasco is exaggerated, and while he did marry a rich widow, who quickly divorced him, she had not been a client of Addison.

Wise Guys and Bounce stuck more closely to the facts of the brothers' lives, including references to their other siblings, their father's successful career, and Wilson's New York period, but Sondheim and Weidman decided these facts held back the story with what Sondheim called "interesting and irrelevant information".

"In our attempt to cover every colorful incident in the Mizners' lives we were shortchanging the emotional content of the material: the convoluted love story between the brothers and with their parents.

"[9] In November 2003, The New York Times reported "the show, which received lukewarm reviews in two tryout runs, is not coming to Broadway anytime soon.

"[24] Ben Brantley, in his New York Times review of the 2003 Kennedy Center production, said "[It] never seems to leave its starting point...Mr. Kind and Mr. McGillin execute this self-introduction [title song] charmingly, translating wryness and ruefulness into a breezy soft-shoe sensibility.

But in a sense, when they have finished the song they have already delivered the whole show...Bounce, which features the vibrant Michele Pawk as a zestful gold digger (of both Klondike and jazz-age varieties) and Jane Powell as the Mizners' mother, only rarely kicks into a higher gear than the one that gently propels the opening duet...their trajectory feels as straight and flat as a time line in a history book.

But his extraordinary gift for stealthily weaving dark motifs into a brighter musical fabric is definitely in evidence, mellifluously rendered in the peerless Jonathan Tunick's orchestrations.

"[25] Brantley, in his review of the 2008 production, praised Cerveris and Gemignani, but declares that, "The problem is that this musical's travelogue structure precludes its digging deep.