Dear World - 1969 Original Broadway Cast

Dear World has been renowned as the best score by Jerry Herman to many critics, albeit the success of his other musicals like La Cage aux Folles, Hello! Dolly and Mame. By comparison, the musical itself had only a brief run in broadway, lasting only 132 perfs. Adapted from a French play called "The Madwoman of Chaillot", the plot is about Countess Aurelia, who owns a cafe in Paris, saved Julian who tried to commit suicide sine he could not bring himself to blow the cafe up as commanded by the tycoons. Some of the numbers in the show remain a favorite for classic musical theatre lovers, those songs include "I Never Said I Love You", "Dear World" and "And I Was Beautiful". An additional note to this recording, with this show premiered in 1969, Jerry Herman became the first person in musical theatre history to have 3 shows running simultaneously on Broadway (the other two are, namely Hello! Dolly and Mame)

This is of course not true. Even if Sammas means "the first composer," at the very least Richard Rodgers had already achieved this with South Pacific, The King and I, and Me and Juliet (and before Me and Juliet opened, there had been revivals of Oklahoma! and then Pal Joey running simultaneously with South Pacific and The King and I, but maybe you don't want to count revivals). I wouldn't claim that this is the earliest example without doing some research (which anyone ought to do before making such claims, not to mention also setting some parameters), it's just the first example to come to my mind. (Gershwin also more than once had music in three shows running simultaneously, but they may not have been entire scores.)