The Fix was developed in association with Cameron Mackintosh under the working title Cal: A Musical Tale of Relative Insanity.

[7][8] Act 1 Days before a United States presidential election, shoo-in candidate Reed Chandler suffers a fatal heart attack between the thighs of his mistress.

Cal is enlisted in the army and married off to a perky debutante before developing a hard drug problem and being photographed during sex with his mistress, a nightclub singer named Tina McCoy.

To cover up Cal's indiscretion, Grahame is forced to call upon the services of the city's criminal underworld, headed by Anthony Gliardi, who we are told is a "friend of the family".

The list of favours owed to Gliardi grows longer, Cal's addiction deepens and Grahame's legs finally give way and he is condemned to life in a wheelchair.