Bells Are Ringing

About the show

Setting: New York City, late 1950s ACT ONE Ella Peterson works for "Susanswerphone", a telephone answering service owned by a woman named Sue. She listens in on others' lives and adds some interest to her own humdrum existence by adopting different identities – and voices – for her clients. They include Blake Barton, an out-of-work Method actor, Dr. Kitchell, a dentist with musical yearnings but lacking talent, and playwright Jeff Moss, who is suffering from writer's block and with whom Ella has fallen in love, although she has never met him. Ella considers the relationships with these clients "perfect" because she can't see them and they can't see her ("It's a Perfect Relationship"). Jeff is writing a play called "The Midas Touch," the first play he's written since his writing partner left him ("Independent (On My Own)"). One day the producer of the play insists that he finish the play by the next morning and meet him at 9:00 am. While asking her to wake him up on time, he turns to Ella (who he only knows as the Susanswerphone lady) for help in writing the play. Meanwhile, Sandor, Sue's rich boyfriend, reveals plans to a group of gangsters to use Susanswerphone as a front for a gambling operation, by pretending to be a record seller and taking orders for "symphonies" as code. ("It's a Simple Little System"). Ella wants to visit Jeff's apartment to help him write the play, but she is intercepted by a policeman who is convinced that Susanswerphone is a front for an "escort service". Ella asks him "Is it a Crime?" to help someone in need? He agrees that it isn't, and lets her go. She arrives at Jeff's apartment and offers him help with his play, and a romance ensues ("I Met a Girl," "Long Before I Knew You"). ACT TWO Ella is preparing to go to a party at Jeff's apartment, feeling nervous about meeting his friends. Carl, a friend of hers, helps her regain her confidence with a cha-cha dance ("Mu-Cha-Cha"). The guests at the party are all very pretentious and rich and snobby ("Drop That Name") and they make Ella feel very out of place. She leaves Jeff ("The Party's Over"). Carl, a music nerd, thwarts Sandor's operation when he receives an order for "Beethoven's 10th symphony," because he knows that Beethoven only wrote 9 symphonies. The policeman arrests Sandor. Meanwhile, Jeff comes to Susanswerphone to confess his love for Ella. She quits Susanswerphone in order to make a life with herself and Jeff ("I'm Going Back").