[1] Based on Hilton's classic 1933 novel Lost Horizon, it focuses on Hugh Conway, a veteran member of the British diplomatic service, who stumbles across a utopian lamasery high in the Himalayas in Tibet after surviving a plane crash in the mountainous terrain.

When the dying High Lama asks him to take charge after his death, Conway must decide between embracing the inner peace, love, and sense of purpose he has discovered in this mysterious world or attempt to return to civilization as he knows it.

[2] The Broadway production, directed by Albert Marre and choreographed by Donald Saddler, opened on June 13, 1956 at the Winter Garden Theatre, where it ran for only twenty-one performances.

[3] The cast included Dennis King, Shirley Yamaguchi, Martyn Green, Jack Cassidy, Alice Ghostley, Carol Lawrence, Berry Kroeger, Harold Lang, and Robert Cohan.

The show was mounted for a 1960 television production as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame, with several new songs, starring Richard Basehart, Claude Rains, Gene Nelson, Helen Gallagher, and Ghostley reprising her Broadway role.