Dead End the Musical

Music by Neil Fishman • Lyrics by Harvey Edelman • Book by Peter C. Palame

Adapted from Sidney Kingsley’s landmark 1935 play Dead End

Available for Stage Production

The Musical

Dead End the Musical transforms Sidney Kingsley’s celebrated Depression-era drama into a full-scale musical about poverty and privilege, crime and consequence, love, ambition and the hope for a better life.

Set on Manhattan’s East Side in 1935, the story unfolds in a poor neighborhood literally overshadowed by a new luxury apartment building. Neighborhood kids roam the streets while the adults around them struggle with unemployment, poverty, romance and survival. Into this world returns notorious gangster Baby Face Martin, looking for the mother and childhood sweetheart he left behind.

At the heart of the story are Drina, a young activist determined to create a better future for herself and her teenage brother Tommy; Gimpty, an unemployed architect with dreams of building a better world; and a neighborhood divided by the enormous distance between those who have money and those who do not.

Nearly a century after Kingsley’s play first appeared on Broadway, its themes of economic inequality, opportunity, crime, justice and redemption remain strikingly contemporary.

For production and licensing inquiries, contact Sammy Smile Music.

What the Broadway Legends Had to Say

“I would stage that at any Broadway theater tonight.”
— Joseph Stein, bookwriter of Fiddler on the Roof, following a presentation of excerpts at the ASCAP Musical Theater Workshop

“Let’s get this musical to Broadway as soon as possible!”
— Sidney Kingsley, author of Dead End, following a reading at the Dramatists Guild

“The work is professional and always honest.”
— Stephen Sondheim, in a letter to the creative team after hearing a recording of a Dramatists Guild workshop presentation

The Story

New York City, 1935. Along the East River, children of struggling families play on the streets beneath a new luxury apartment building whose wealthy residents live in a very different world.

Drina Gordon is a young activist fighting for better working conditions while struggling to keep her teenage brother Tommy out of trouble. Their friend Gimpty, an unemployed architect, dreams of designing homes ordinary people can afford. Drina quietly loves him, but Gimpty is drawn to Kay Burton, a woman whose relationship with a wealthy man offers her an escape from poverty.

Into the neighborhood returns Baby Face Martin, a notorious gangster who grew up on these same streets. Tired of life on the run, Martin has come home hoping to reconnect with his mother and Francey, the girl he once loved. Instead, he discovers that neither his past nor the neighborhood he remembers can be reclaimed.

Meanwhile, Tommy and the other neighborhood boys clash with Phillipe, the privileged boy who lives in the luxury building. What begins as youthful mischief escalates into violence, placing Tommy in serious jeopardy and forcing Drina to confront how little separates the neighborhood's children from men like Martin.

As Martin's hopes of recapturing his past collapse, he begins planning another crime. Gimpty must decide whether turning him in makes him a responsible citizen or the very thing the neighborhood despises—a squealer.

At the same time, Gimpty begins to recognize what has been in front of him all along: Drina's love, courage and determination. When Tommy's fate is finally placed in the hands of the adults around him, questions of punishment, mercy and responsibility come together in a final plea for compassion.

Through the lives of the neighborhood kids, struggling families, wealthy residents and a gangster who can never truly go home, Dead End the Musical asks how much of a person's destiny is determined by the world into which he or she is born—and whether anyone can break the cycle.

The Concept Album • A Full Theatrical Experience in Audio

Released in 2022, the Dead End the Musical concept album features a cast of 16 performers and 20 musical numbers in a fully orchestrated production with dialogue, sound effects and musical underscoring.

The recording brings the world of 1935 New York to life—from the comic streetwise energy of the neighborhood kids to the romantic, dramatic and sometimes dark stories of the adults around them.

Available for Stage Production

Genre: Full-length dramatic musical
Setting: New York City, 1935
Running Time: Approximately 2 hours, 50 minutes
Audience: Ages 12 and up
Cast: 27 performers in the current version
Principal/Featured Roles: 4 men, 4 women and 4 boys
Setting Requirements: An East River wharf and surrounding neighborhood, including a local bar, apartment interiors and the terrace/façade of a luxury apartment building.

The original 1935 Broadway production of Dead End famously incorporated water to represent the East River. Contemporary scenic, projection and theatrical technology offer numerous ways to evoke the river and waterfront without reproducing the original staging.

• It’s In Duh Cards

• Paper Houses

• Rich Folks

• Out West

• Get Over It

• Mark of Duh Squealuh

• Glad Tuh See Yuh

• Standing on a Corner

• Loinin’

• Blue Collar Blues

The Score

The score ranges from comic ensemble numbers and period-inflected songs to romantic ballads and dramatic character pieces.