Pipe Dream is the seventh musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II; it premiered on Broadway on November 30, 1955.

Set in Monterey, California, the musical tells the story of the romance between Doc, a marine biologist, and Suzy, who in the novel is a prostitute; her profession is only alluded to in the stage work.

Broadway producers Cy Feuer and Ernie Martin held the rights to Sweet Thursday and wanted Frank Loesser to compose a musical based on it.

As Hammerstein adapted Sweet Thursday, he and Rodgers had concerns about featuring a prostitute as female lead and setting part of the musical in a bordello.

[2] In the aftermath of Guys and Dolls's success, Feuer and Martin were interested in adapting John Steinbeck's 1945 novel Cannery Row into a musical.

Even his close friend Dora, who ran the Bear Flag Restaurant, a whorehouse, has died, and her sister Fauna has taken her place as madam.

As Hammerstein received new material from Steinbeck, he and Rodgers began to map out the musical, conceiving scenes and deciding where songs should be placed.

Steinbeck later commented, "Some of the critics are so concerned for my literary position that they can't read a book of mine without worrying where it will fit in my place in history.

[17] From the beginning of the project, Feuer and Martin wanted Henry Fonda (who was married to Oscar Hammerstein's stepdaughter Susan Blanchard) to play Doc.

When Andrews said she auditioned for a new musical Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe had written based on George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, tentatively titled My Lady Liza, Rodgers responded "If they ask you to do that show, I think you should do it.

Tyler herself reported, “I detest people who are always taking credit for me—if anyone’s responsible for me, it’s me!” With a background of seven years on television, and study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, she tried out for Pipe Dream on September 30, 1955.

In contrast to the complex staging of Me and Juliet, Mielziner's sets were uncomplicated, a system of house-frame outlines in front of backdrops representing Monterey.

Alluding to Hammerstein's emphasis on the scene in which Suzy makes Doc soup after Hazel breaks his arm, Steinbeck stated, "You've turned my prostitute into a visiting nurse!

In the early morning hours, marine biologist Doc is already at work in his one-man Western Biological Laboratory, getting an order of starfish ready to be shipped to a university.

Doc, whose lack of a medical degree does not stop the denizens of Cannery Row from seeking him out for treatment, bandages her hand, as the irritated Millicent leaves.

Fauna, who runs the nearby Bear Flag Café—an establishment open even at this hour—had heard that a new girl in town had injured herself, and has come to talk to Suzy.

As Fauna and the girls arrive, so do the other Flophouse boys, and Mac gives Doc what was bought with the raffle money—the largest (tele)scope in the catalog.

Pipe Dream premiered on Broadway on November 30, 1955, at the Shubert Theatre, with Helen Traubel as Fauna, William Johnson as Doc, Judy Tyler as Suzy, George D. Wallace as Mac and Mike Kellin as Hazel.

Traubel missed a number of performances due to illness, and left when her contract expired a few weeks before the show closed on June 30, 1956—she was replaced by Nancy Andrews.

Los Angeles Times critic Dan Sullivan admired the small-scale staging, but called the show "the emptiest musical that two geniuses ever wrote" and said of it, "imagine a song ['The Happiest House on the Block'] about a bawdyhouse which describes the goings-on there after midnight as 'friendly, foolish and gay'".

[33] It was presented in March–April 2012 by New York City Center Encores!,[37] also as a staged concert;[38] the cast featured Will Chase (Doc), Laura Osnes (Suzy), Leslie Uggams (Fauna), Stephen Wallem (Hazel) and Tom Wopat (Mac).

[34] During rehearsals and even during the run of the show, the music was repeatedly revised by Rodgers in an attempt to gear the songs to Traubel's voice.

According to Bruce Pomahac of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, "as she began to get cold feet about what her New York fans would think about her as a belter, the keys of each of her numbers edged upward.

"[44] "All At Once You Love Her" saw some popularity when recorded, during the run of the show, by Perry Como; in what Pomahac speculates was an attempt to appease Traubel, a reprise of the song was added for her, and provided "one of the loveliest moments in all of Pipe Dream".

[45] "The Next Time It Happens" was inserted in David Henry Hwang's revised version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's later work, Flower Drum Song.

[47] According to David Lewis in his history of the Broadway musical, "The Rodgers and Hammerstein office has, it would appear, given up on Pipe Dream and [Me and] Juliet ever finding an audience ... so these songs are up for grabs.

[51][52] Suskin reviewed it highly favorably, calling the show "a fascinating musical on several counts, and one which displays the rich, vibrant sound of pure Rodgers & Hammerstein.

[54] John Chapman of the Daily News stated, "Perhaps Hammerstein and Rodgers are too gentlemanly to be dealing with Steinbeck's sleazy and raffish denizens.

The dances, which aren’t numerous, always fit into the text, and they never fail to be lively and imaginative….The new show is clearly the work of theater men who know their business.

"[56] Syndicated music columnist and author Sigmund Spaeth wrote: "Actually Pipe Dream would be hailed as a masterpiece if it were the work of a new composer and librettist, and this is true also of such past [R&H] successes as Me and Juliet and Allegro.