The two-character story spans 50 years, from 1895 to 1945, as it focuses on the ups and downs experienced by Agnes and Michael throughout their marriage.

The set consists solely of their bedroom, dominated by the large fourposter bed in the center of the room.

After four previews, the Broadway production, directed and choreographed by Gower Champion, opened on December 5, 1966, at the 46th Street Theatre and closed on June 15, 1968, after 560 performances.

Carol Lawrence and Gordon MacRae played matinees starting in October 1967[1] and then replaced Martin and Preston in December 1967.

[2] Martin and Preston starred in a national tour, originally scheduled to play 27 cities for one year, starting in March 1968 in Rochester, New York.

[6] The Australian production starring Jill Perryman and Stephen Douglass presented by J. C. Williamson's premiered at the Theatre Royal, Sydney on February 15, 1969.

[7] In 1993 Jill Perryman reprised her performance alongside her husband Kevan Johnston at Old Brisbane Hotel, Perth from November 11 to December 18.

[9] A television version produced by Archer King with Lee Remick and Hal Linden was broadcast in 1982.

A 1996 Off-Broadway revival at the Lamb's Theatre was directed by Will Mackenzie and starred Karen Ziemba and David Garrison.

[11] The show is a popular production of regional and amateur theatre across the United States and Canada, because of the minimal cost of mounting it.

[12] Act One A bedroom, complete with four-poster bed, chaise longue and easy chair.

They move through the ceremony, complete with Agnes throwing the flowers and the two going out into the audience to shake hands and welcome guests.

They climb clumsily into bed and pull the covers back to find, to their horror, a pillow embroidered with the words, "God Is Love."

He falls asleep, and she puts the "God Is Love" pillow under his head, tucks him in and kisses him.

She folds his clothes and puts them away, gets the robe that is hanging at her dressing area and slips into a new outfit.

Lights come up on Michael pacing, worrying and praying that his wife and baby survive ("The Waiting Room").

He treats her as a lowly domestic as he lectures the audience on writers and writing, themes and works.

He corrects her grammar, criticizes her cooking and habitual lateness, insisting that she accompany him to literary parties at which she feels uncomfortable.

In response to Michael having criticized her shopping habits, Agnes starts parading the extravagant items on her dressing table.

She fantasizes about what her life would be like if she were a saucy, single divorcee, partying the night away ("Flaming Agnes").

He begins throwing her things into a suitcase: her alarm clock, her nightgown, her cold cream and the "God Is Love" pillow.

She stalks out, with her ermine thrown over her nightgown, with the Flaming Agnes set determinedly on her head.

We hear that, offstage, Michael has confronted his son at the door with the razor strap, only to discover that his boy is a man, dressed in his father's tuxedo.

They make plans for their middle age and retirement: he'll finally finish his Collected Tolstoy; she'll cruise to Tahiti and learn to do the hootchi-koo; he'll play the saxophone, she the violin ("When the Kids Get Married").

The music continues as they go to their dressing tables and apply old-age makeup, wigs and whiten their hair.

He was mortified to find it on their wedding night and won't have another young groom traumatized.

Martin has "several funny little vocal tricks...and always...with that mellow sound that comes from her throat like red wine at room temperature."

Kerr also wrote that the material was "on the whole barely passable, a sort of carefully condensed time capsule of all the cliches that have ever been spawned by people married and/or single...the lyrics are for the most part remarkably plain-spoken.

"[14] In reviewing the new cast of Carol Lawrence and Gordon MacRae, Clive Barnes wrote in The New York Times that they "exerted a certain charm."