The story concerns an engaged young man, Bill, whose ex-fiancée arrives unexpectedly on his wedding day.

Theatre agent Elisabeth Marbury urged composer Jerome Kern and librettist Guy Bolton, later joined by British humorist and lyricist/playwright P. G. Wodehouse to write a series of musicals tailored to the theatre, with an intimate style and modest budgets.

These "Princess Theatre shows" had coherent, clever plots that provided an alternative to the other musical entertainments that then dominated Broadway: star-studded revues and extravaganzas of Florenz Ziegfeld, thinly-plotted, musical comedies, Gilbert and Sullivan revivals and gaudy adaptations of European operettas.

[1][2] After a modest success, Nobody's Home (1915), Kern and Bolton had a hit with an original musical called Very Good Eddie (1915).

The production was produced by William Elliott and F. Ray Comstock and directed by Robert Milton and Edward Royce, who also choreographed it.

It starred Vivienne Segal as Mollie Farringdon, one of her earliest roles, and Carl Randall as Bill Finch.

Its review began: "Once more Comstock, Elliott, and Gest have shown their allegiance to the policy of supplying popular entertainment which is mitigated by all availabie talent and good taste".

[6] In April 1918, Dorothy Parker wrote in Vanity Fair: Well, Wodehouse and Bolton and Kern have done it again.

And oh, how do I like Jerome Kern's music – those nice, soft, polite little tunes that always make me wish I'd been a better girl.

Recent productions include one by the Musicals Tonight troupe in New York City in 2006[8] and one by 42nd Street Moon in San Francisco in 2007.

[9] Setting: Hempstead, Long Island and Waverly Mews Debonair but penniless Willoughby "Bill" Finch is set to marry Long Island society gal Molly Farringdon, although he has not charmed his formidable future mother-in-law.

Bill's sassy former fiancée, May, has met and piqued the interest of his affable friend and best man, Hale.

Spike's sticky-fingered girlfriend, Fanny, tries to persuade him to pocket the wedding gifts, but he wishes that they could put their old prison days behind them.

Fanny tells Spike that she does not have the pearls, but she is very nervous when a British private detective shows up.

Finally, the real thief confesses, Molly finds out that May and Hale are engaged, and a happy ending ensues with a double wedding.