Calling on the Bells Are Ringing opening April 12 were Saturday Night Fever's Orfeh, former pop star and more recent theatre star Deborah Gibson (Cinderella, Gypsy, Beauty and the Beast), Jean Kennedy Smith and film legend Lauren Bacall.
Bells Are Ringing offers a breezy, satiric, but sweetly affectionate view of then modern New York City, where subway rides turn friendly ("Hello, Hello There!"), meetings in the park become reasons for singing ("Just in Time") and celebrity soirees can make a working-class girl feel inferior ("The Party's Over"). The original production of the Jule Styne-Betty Comden-Adolph Green musical ran 924 performances, under the direction of Jerome Robbins. Tina Landau (Floyd Collins, Space) directs the revival, starring Faith Prince, Marc Kudisch, Beth Fowler and David Garrison.