The Saga of Jenny

In the context of the show, the song comes in a dream sequence in which Elliott defends her indecision about marriage by telling the tale of "a girl named Jenny/Whose virtues were varied and many—/Excepting that she was inclined/Always to make up her mind", until she "kicked the bucket at 76."

Jenny's decisive nature is blamed for multiple disasters, including forcing the necessity of the United States' Good Neighbor Policy.

The song was included in the 1944 Hollywood film Lady in the Dark and also features in a dance sequence in the 1968 musical Star!, with Julie Andrews portraying Gertrude Lawrence.

Artistes who have recorded the song include Gertrude Lawrence,[2] Dawn Upshaw,[3] Lotte Lenya, Julie Andrews, Ute Lemper, Danny Kaye, Mildred Bailey, and by Benny Goodman & His Orchestra with Helen Forrest.

The song was re-written in 1988 by the songwriter and librettist Stephen Sondheim for his great friend musician and co-writer of the musical West Side Story Leonard Bernstein's 70th birthday with the ironic title of "The Saga of Lenny, with no apologies to Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin".