Rodgers, Hart and Fields’ 1927 romp returned to the Broadway stage in 1943, in an acclaimed production starring Vivienne Segal, Dick Foran, Vera-Ellen and Robert Chisholm. Directed by John C. Wilson and choreographed by William Holbrook and Al White, Jr., the Broadway revival of A Connecticut Yankee featured a revised book and six new Rodgers & Hart tunes. Though Rodgers was by now collaborating with Oscar Hammerstein II (Oklahoma! had opened a few months earlier), he chose to reconnect with Hart in an effort to raise his old partner’s spirits. Their reunion was an artistic triumph; Hart’s lyrics were among the best of his career, particularly in the show-stopping “To Keep My Love Alive.” The song, a brilliant comedy number written to highlight Segal’s talents, may have been the last lyric Hart wrote. He died on November 22, just five days after the production’s New York opening.

The revival was generally well received, running for 135 performances. Howard Barnes of the New York Herald Tribune wrote “The team of Mark Twain and Richard Rodgers is still going strong” and Burton Rasco of New York World-Telegram called it “a highly enjoyable entertainment, lavishly produced, full of pretty girls, and spiced here and there with fun.”