Stephen Sondheim suggested evening the percentage at two percent each, but Sondheim refused because he wanted the credit. Sondheim later said he wished "someone stuffed a handkerchief in my mouth because it would have been nice to get that extra percentage". After "West Side Story" opened, Shevelove lamented the lack of "low-brow comedy" on Broadway and mentioned a possible musical based on Plautus' Roman comedies. When Sondheim was interested in the idea he called a friend, Larry Gelbart, to co-write the script. The show went through a number of drafts, and was interrupted briefly by Sondheim's next project. In 1959, Sondheim was
Pets (song) radio play. No material was cut; the edit had virtually the same running length as the album version. Commercially, the song reached No. 67 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100, No. 1 on the "Billboard" Modern Rock Tracks chart and No. 53 on the UK Singles Chart. In Australia, "Pets" was the 33rd most popular radio hit on the Triple J Hottest 100 countdown for 1993. Most versions of the single included the previously unreleased non-album track "Tonight", recorded during the "Porno for Pyros" album sessions. "Tonight" is a cover of a song written by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim