The story is based on the 1916 play Hobson's Choice by Harold Brighouse.

The production opened on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on November 26, 1966 and ran for 161 performances.

[1] In Lancashire, England in 1880 the men of the town gather in the local pub, with much drinking.

The widower Henry Hobson, owner of a boot shop, has three daughters, and he wishes them to marry.

He wrote that the musical was "easygoing, unpretentious, minor-league...a light, slight, occasionally charming pastime."