[1] The story is set in the Roaring Twenties at Tait College, where football star Tom Marlowe falls in love with studious Connie Lane, who is tutoring him so he can pass astronomy and be eligible to play in the big game.

Football star Tom Marlowe neglects his studies and fails his astronomy class, which he had to pass to play in the big game.

Babe O'Day, a vivacious flapper, announces that she has broken up with Beef Saunders, a brawny and possessive football player.

Tom asks his girlfriend Patricia to help him study for the test, but she is busy with sorority plans, so she recommends that he work with her studious cousin, Connie Lane.

He worries that his chances of being named for the All-American team are gone, but Connie helps him remember that "The Best Things in Life Are Free" (reprise).

All the sorority girls are crazy about Tom ("He's a Ladies' Man"), but he is off limits since he is currently romancing Patricia Bingham, whose father is of one of the college's wealthiest benefactors.

Meanwhile, Bobby Randall, a substitute on the football team, is pleasantly shocked when Babe O'Day, a stylish flapper, pursues him.

Sylvester (a college freshman whom no one knows the last name of) found out that Tom has neglected his studies and has failed his astronomy final, which he needed to pass in order to play in the Big Game.

They ask Patricia if she would tutor Tom for his exam, but she has to choose new drapes for the sorority house that night, and recommends her cousin Connie instead.

Across campus, Coach Johnson nostalgically serenades Professor Kenyon, hoping she will go easy when Tom retakes his exam.

Bobby stops by the sorority open house (after all, they might have sandwiches) and commits to Babe ("Never Swat a Fly"), but only if they win the game.

Pooch urges the team to "Keep Your Sunny Side Up", while Professor Kenyon tries to persuade Babe and Connie that the three of them should devise a strategy to pursue their men, and help them win the game.

The cast included John Price Jones as Tom Marlowe, Mary Lawlor as Connie Lane, Gus Shy as Bobby Randall, Inez Courtney as Babe O'Day, and Zelma O'Neal as Flo.

[4] The musical was set in what was then the present day, the Roaring Twenties, and, according to musical theatre historian Gerald Bordman, it was clearly a reflection of that era: "The decade's jazzy sounds, its assertive, explosive beat, its sophomoric high jinks were joyously mirrored..."[3] The plot hinged on a professor's unexpected generosity: Tom fails Professor Charles Kenyon's astronomy class, and, even though Connie tutors him, he still fails his makeup exam.

[8] After a try-out in Boston, a nationwide tour for almost a year, and 51 previews, a lavish production opened on Broadway on December 23, 1974, at the St. James Theatre where, having failed to charm the critics as its predecessor had, it ran for only 16 regular performances.

In 1993, Mark Madama and Wayne Bryan (who had played the role of Bobby Randall in the 1974 production) revised the book and score for Music Theatre of Wichita.

[6] They also altered the story so Tom, because of Connie's tutoring, passes the test on his own accord without any undeserved help from Professor Kenyon.

[10] MGM released two film versions, the first in 1930 with Bessie Love and Cliff Edwards and the second in 1947 with June Allyson and Peter Lawford.

Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times pronounced it "a ripping good show", with an authentically collegiate atmosphere, stating, "For once a musical play based upon undergraduate life and a football game has some resemblance to the disorderly, rhymeless scheme of things in American institutions of learning".

He deemed it "a constantly fast entertainment with furious dancing, catchy tunes...excellent singing, and genuine excitement.

Walter Kerr opined that preserving the original score was vital to the character of a revival, stating, "the only reason for remounting vehicles that have half-vanished...is to get beyond all that is dated into the specific textures of the scores that haven't...there's no point for enduring banality in a book if all you're going to get in return is a random rummage through an attic that produces a perhaps bountiful but essentially characterless heap".

In the Daily News, Douglas Watt declared, "the dancing is the best part of the show" but deemed the vocal arrangements "too-busy".

"[13] Barnes, however, stated that though Faye "is not the most animated leading lady...her light baritone voice is pleasing, and she unquestionably dances with the guts of a Ruby Keeler.

In his review, Barnes praised Jana Robbins, Barbara Lail, Marti Rolph, Scott Stevenson, and Wayne Bryan for their performances as the principal student characters.

[15] Gottfried wrote, "The only standout, really, is Marti Rolph--the ingenue--who has a gorgeous voice and manages to inject pert spirit into a spiritless show".

In The Wichita Eagle, Susan L. Rife wrote that the new production was a "lavish ode to the outright goofiness of the Roaring '20s", praising the actors' exuberance and the choreography.

She suggested that the show's three-hour run time was too long, and noted that "its pace swings wildly from high-energy dance numbers to slow-moving chunks of dialogue".