Bells Are Ringing

Bells Are Ringing: This musical collaboration of playwright Betty Comden, lyricist Adolph Green and composer Jule Styne takes place in 1950's Brooklyn. Lively Ella Peterson works for Susanserphone, her cousin Sue's hole-in-the-wall telephone answering service, by playing out different personalities to her different clients and passing the information she hears from one client on to the next. As she becomes embroiled in her clients' lives, she catches the attention of dimwitted police detective Barnes, who believe that Susanswerphone is a front for an escort service and consequently wiretaps the company. To avoid Barnes' wiretaps, Ella starts to visit her clients in person, finding romance with playwright Jeffrey Moss who suffers from writer's block and before Ella's arrival is teetering on the brink of alcoholism. Meanwhile, Barnes' fixation on Susanswerphone as a house of ill-repute keeps him from recognizing that Sue's boyfriend Sandor is posing as a record executive and using the company, unbeknownst to Sue, to run his bookmaking operation. The show featured the now classic songs “Just in Time” and “The Party's Over.”

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