After tryouts in Wilmington, Washington, New Haven and Boston (under the working title of Lady Fair), The Desert Song opened on Broadway at the Casino Theatre on November 30, 1926. Directed by Arthur Hurley with choreography by Bobby Connolly, the production starred Vivienne Segal and Robert Halliday. Though reviews were mixed, audiences loved the show, and it ran for an impressive 471 performances. The New York Times found it “floridly contrived” but admired the “excellent and sometimes imposing score.” Jeffrey Holesdale of the New York World praised the show as “full-scale operetta done as it should be done,” and Bide Dudley of the New York Evening World called it “a big, red-blooded musical treat.”