Bécaud had seen Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and was inspired to work with Harold Prince, who directed the 1979 Stephen Sondheim musical.
He wanted to adapt the novel The Life Before Us by Romain Gary into a musical, which was also made into a movie Madame Rosa starring Simone Signoret (1977), but Prince declined.
Before going to Broadway, the show was workshopped at both the Centerstage in Baltimore, Maryland, and the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.
The production, which closed after just ten days, starred Georgia Brown as Roza, Bob Gunton as Lola, Max Loving as Young Momo, Alex Paez as Momo, Joey McKneely as Moise, and also featured Al De Cristo, Ira Hawkins, Jerry Matz, Marcia Lewis, Stephen Rosenberg, Richard Frisch, Michele Mais, Mandla Msomi, Thuli Dumakude, Monique Cintron, David Shoichi Chan, Yamil Borges, and Neal Ben-Ari.
Understudies were Ramon Del Barrio, Anny De Gange, Dennis Courtney and Francisco Paler-Large.