Romance in Hard Times

• Original Off-Broadway Production (1989)
  New York, NY

Click on the title for info on the song.

Original score

• Harvey
• Standing in Line
• I'll Get Out of Here
  • aka Out of Here [no note]
• Harvey Promised to Change the World
• Supreme Court Saved from Fire, The
• Goodbye
• Charity Quartet
• Lovesong
• Eleanor Roosevelt: A Discussion of Soup
• I Never Said I Didn't Love You
• You Got Me Crazy
• That's Enough for Me
• Places I Fainted from Hunger
  • aka Places I Fainted from Hunger/ [no note]
• Time Passes
• All Fall Down
• Good Times Are Here, The
• Feelin' Rich
• Hold My Baby Back
• Hennie Soup
• Thinking About You
• I Don't Want to Feel What I Feel
• Prosperity Song, The
• Gaggle of Celebrities, A
  • aka Celebrity Song [no note]
• I'll Get You Out of My Life
  • aka You Got Me Grinding my Teeth [no note]
• How Could You Do This to Someone Who Robbed for You
• Blame It on These Times
• Another Celebrity Song
• You Can't Let Romance Die
• Supreme Court

Cut during run

• All of Us Are Losers
• Red Faces at the Kremlin
• I Will Make You Rich
• New World Ain't Coming Soon, The
• Stop Kicking
• Vote for Polly
• In the Nick of Time
• That's Why We Do the Things We Do
• Gus' Triumph
• Last Can a Hennie Soup, The
• All of Us Are Brothers

Set in a depression soup kitchen in New York City, Romance in Hard Times tells the story of Hennie, who has recently learned she is pregnant; Harvey, her husband who refuses to speak because he cannot provide for his wife; and Boris, a determined loser who loves Hennie. Through a series of disappointments and tragedies (though told with lots of humor included), Hennie decides that the world is not an acceptable place to bring her baby into, and therefore, holds her baby back, for many months past the normal term. With other characters such as Zoe, Polly, the Handcuffed Sisters, Gus, The Kid, and even Eleanor Roosevelt helping out, Hennie tries to find something that will make everything right again, so she can bring her baby into the world.

Previously done as AMERICA KICKS UP ITS HEELS (q.v.).

The used song list represents what we believe was the song lineup after final revisions at the Public/Newman.