speciality acts, starting with Shelby. Another of Mick's schemes is to trump up a romance between Bill and Rita, culminating in a wedding on the dance floor-only pretend, of course-and he insists that Rita tell Bill, in spite of her misgivings. After the 'Two Step', on their hourly fifteen-minute break, Rita finds Bill on the boardwalk, at the tank of the Diving Horse, where he shows off and she dares him to jump in for a swim. But before Rita can tell Bill of Mick's plan, their break is over, in time for Luke Adams' Harmonica Speciality. When Mick brings Rita and Bill up to the mic' to announce their engagement on the nightly radio broadcast, Bill proposes unprompted by either. In celebration, Mick has Rita sing her signature tune as we flashback to her act at the Trenton Air Show where Bill first saw her. The scene shifts back to the Steel Pier where, in order to knock out some of the competition, Mick announces that it's time to run "the Sprints". Rita falls, but Bill somehow manages to stop time and run it back again so she won't be disqualified before his time is up. This time she doesn't fall, as the marathon continues. ACT TWO As the publicity stunt wedding approaches, Rita is drawn to Bill in ways she can't admit. He even enters her dreams during a fifteen-minute nap, taking her on a celestial aeroplane ride. The young farmer, Happy, has dropped out of the marathon, in hopes that his wife Precious will come home with him to Utah. Precious has other, grander plans for herself, but when Shelby offers to take her place with Happy he gently turns her down. On the phoney wedding night, Mick takes Rita up to the roof to show her the lines of people flocking to buy tickets. Suspecting her growing feelings for Bill, Mick insists she get him to drop out as soon as the wedding's over, and leaves. Rita is consoling herself with her dream that this will be her last marathon when Precious comes looking for Mick, who clearly has taught Precious more about show business than his secret marital status should allow. Rita's world seems to be coming apart. The circus-like atmosphere of the wedding is heightened by the cellophane costumes the wedding party wears. In exchange for her personal favours, Mick has featured Precious in the ceremony as the personification of Fralinger's Salt Water Taffy. For the titillation of the crowd, Rita and Bill are given their fifteen-minute break in a honeymoon tent on the dance floor, one Rita knows can be ripped away at any moment. When she wishes she and Bill could escape, Bill offers to take her away in his plane, telling her that anything can happen if you believe in your dreams. But Bill's time has run out. As he explains to Rita that his three weeks are up, the tent is ripped away and the hurt and confused Rita runs from the dance floor. Bill watches her go and then leaves. Mick tries to force Rita back onto the floor to finish the marathon with another partner but Rita is determined to go home, to the house that Mick angrily informs her he had to sell long before. As Rita packs to leave, Mick furiously reminds her of everything he has done for her. Grabbing the Air Show raffle ticket Bill had given her out of her hand, he reminds her how her act failed in Trenton after some "hot-dog pilot" got himself killed in a crash. Suddenly everything becomes clear to Rita. For three weeks she has been dancing with a man - falling in love with a man - who was only with her on borrowed time. As she realises what a loveless trap her life with Mick has been, the world around her fades away and Bill appears. Urging her to take a chance on her life, he asks her at last for the dance he won in the raffle. When their tender dance is through, he is swept away by the dancers in white and the world of the marathon returns. Rita is surrounded by the exhausted surviving contestants, but she picks up her suitcase and, with a triumphant sense of hope and determination, she leaves the marathon behind forever. MUSICAL NUMBERS: Overture - Orchestra ACT 1 Prelude Orchestra with Bill Kelly Waiting to Ride Rita Racine Everybody Dance Mick Hamilton, Dance Couples, Mr. Walker, Sonny,Bill Kelly, Rita Racine & Company Second Chance Bill Kelly with Rita Racine
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