Stroman's late husband, Mike Ockrent, had asked his employees to recommend material to be adapted into musicals during his two-year production deal at Warner Bros. His assistant recommended the Zola novel, and began developing the idea in detail with the production executive. Later, when Warner Bros. passed on this, the idea and notes that were developed by Ockrent staff members were given to Stroman. Her original impulse was to make it into a ballet, but decided against it, and felt it could be strong enough as a musical. The idea for the musical "Contact" had also originally been developed at Ockrent's Warner Bros. office by the same two staff members, and then also offered over to Stroman by Ockrent when it didn't fly with the film studio.