I knew Larry would like the idea immediately. Anything that was novel or offbeat was always sure to interest him. So early in 1938, when I suggested that we consider adapting a Shakespearean play into a musical, his eyes quickly lit up and I could almost see sparks coming out of his head. We promptly started tossing ideas back and forth about the possibilities of doing Shakespeare in song and dance. Since no one had ever done it before we had a pretty unlimited field to choose from.

One play, however, intrigued us from the start. And for a very personal reason. Larry had a younger brother named Teddy Hart, who was a very clever comedian. He was short and dark and looked a lot like Larry. But the man he was always being mistaken for was another gifted comic, Jimmy Savo. 'What about using The Comedy of Errors?' Larry said, excitedly rubbing his hands together as he always did when a good idea hit him. 'Teddy and Jimmy Savo would be natural for the twin Dromios.' I knew nepotism should be frowned on, but I also knew this was an inspired idea. We went straight to work on the show that eventually became THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE.

Originally, Larry and I thought we'd like to write the book ourselves. But since up to that time we had been exclusively a song-writing team, we prudently turned over the idea to a more experienced hand named George Abbott. He gladly agreed to take on the triple chore of librettist, director and producer. The book that he came up with was exactly what we wanted -- bright, fast moving, but, in its own wacky way, very much in the bawdy Shakespearean tradition.