After tryouts in New Haven and Boston, I Married an Angel opened on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre on May 11, 1938. Directed by newcomer Joshua Logan – who would later team up with Rodgers & Hammerstein on South Pacific – the production featured Dennis King, Vivienne Segal, Walter Slezak, Charles Walters, Audrey Christie and Hungarian ballerina Vera Sorina as Angel. Sorina was married to choreographer George Balanchine, who created extended dance sequences specifically to highlight her talents.

Reviews were glowing. Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times called the show “one of the best musical comedies for many seasons.” Richard Watts, Jr. of The New York Herald Tribune praised the musical as “thoroughly charming” with “an air of freshness and dexterity,” and John Anderson of The New York Journal-American dubbed it “a winged wonderwork from the musical heavens of Rodgers and Hart.” The show ran for 338 performances, closing on February 25, 1939. Sadly, no cast recording was created, though numerous artists covered individual songs from the score.