Written as a vehicle for British pop star Tommy Steele. It is based on H.G. Wells's novel Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul. Steele plays Arthur Kipps an orphan who unexpectedly inherits a fortune and climbs the social ladder before losing everything and realizing that you just can't buy happiness.
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Half a Sixpence transferred to Broadway in 1965 playing at the Broadhurst Theatre for 511 performances. This production also starred Steele. John Cleese played the small but crucial role of Walsingham the stockbroker from a respectable family who embezzles Kipps' fortune. Half a Sixpence was the last West End show to transfer successfully to New York before the late 1970s and early 1980s musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber
