the show's run, cast replacements included Tom and Dick Smothers, Tom Wopat, Janie Sell and, in an African American version, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Hattie Winston, and Barbara Sharma. Original director and choreographer Joe Layton was replaced due to injuries sustained in a fall. The West End production opened at the Prince of Wales Theatre on October 6, 1977, where it ran for 401 performances. It was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Musical of the Year. The show originally starred Porridge and Rising Damp star Richard Beckinsale, who was replaced as the lead mid-run by Confessions of a Window Cleaner actor Robin Askwith. The band consisted of four on-stage musicians who were among the friends and acted in the opening scene. The show was filled with their shenanigans in the background during the songs. They sang along with some of the numbers and sometimes one of them took a solo and sang alone. The Helen Hayes Theatre in Nyack, New York, presented the musical in April 2004. A production was staged by the Reprise Theatre Company, Brentwood Theatre, Brentwood, California, in December 2008. This starred Jason Alexander (Alvin), Vicki Lewis (Cleo), Patrick Cassidy (Wally), and Lea Thompson (Monica). Response Critical reviews Clive Barnes, reviewing for The New York Times, wrote that the musical is "bright, inventive, amusing and breezy." He noted that what Coleman and Stewart did regarding the band "is breathtakingly simple, but none...has ever done it before. They have taken the band and put it up on stage...The musicians are welded into the play, as a kind of Greek chorus." He especially noted that "It is a gorgeous cast-just right." Finally, he called the musical "mildly sexy, vastly diverting and highly amusing." Awards and nominations Original Broadway production Original London production Watch and listen I Love My Wife excerpt - YouTube I Love My Wife excerpt - YouTube I Love My Wife: A Musical (1977 Original Broadway Cast Recording) CD (April 10, 1992) DRG Records (ASIN: B000000PG7) Broadway Bound 216: Yesterday & Today plus Cy Coleman - The Public Radio Exchange (PRX) "Everybody Today is Turning On": Bea Arthur & Rock Hudson - The Beatrice Arthur Special References External links Internet Broadway Database listing I Love My Wife at guidetomusicaltheatre.com 2015 City Center interview with Lea DeLaria about I Love My Wife 1977 musicals Broadway musicals Musicals by Cy Coleman Musicals by Michael Stewart (playwright) Christmas musicals Tony