The cast features Jim Belushi as bus driver Ralph, the role made famous by the late Jackie Gleason; Peter Scolari as sewer worker Norton; Rachel York as Ralph's wife, Alice; and Helene Yorke as Norton's wife, Trixie. John Treacy Egan portrays the real Gleason.
The new musical was penned by Dusty Kay and Bill Nuss with a score by Stephen Weiner and Peter Mills (Iron Curtain).
The musical, according to the New York daily, "opens on the streets of New York a few weeks before Christmas in 1950.... [Ralph is] angry because he's got no money for the holiday. ... Then he sees an ad for a jingle-writing contest. The winners get $500. And so he and Norton rent a piano -- much to Alice's dismay -- and crank out a song for a cheese company. They win the contest and end up at a fancy Madison Avenue ad agency....with Machiavellian ad execs scheming to undermine Norton and Ralph."