[1] The farcical plot concerns three couples and a sex-crazed voice teacher who board a Hudson River Day Line boat in Poughkeepsie, New York.

The vaudeville-style adventure continues at a hotel, where guests pop in and out of rooms while an inebriated desk clerk tries to sort through the madness.

The show was the second of the series of "Princess Theatre musicals" and was a hit for Bolton and Kern, running for 341 performances and leading to revivals and further successful collaborations.

Early in the 20th century, American musical theatre consisted of a mix of elaborate European operettas, like The Merry Widow (1907), British musical comedy imports, like The Arcadians (1910), George M. Cohan's shows, the operettas of Victor Herbert, and the spectacular revues of Florenz Ziegfeld.

[3] Theatre agent Elisabeth Marbury asked Kern and Bolton to write a series of musicals specifically tailored to its smaller setting, with an intimate style and modest budgets, that would provide an alternative to the star-studded extravaganzas of Ziegfeld and others.

Kern and Bolton's first Princess Theatre musical was Nobody's Home (1915), an adaptation of a London show called Mr. Popple of Ippleton.

Dick Rivers comes aboard and tells Victoria Lake and the girls that he has fallen in love with Elsie Lilly, the star pupil of the great voice teacher Madame Matroppo (“The Same Old Game”).

Eddie pretends that Elsie Darling is his bride so that Dick will give him 20 dollars as a honeymoon gift.

He spills rice out of Percy's suitcase, and the drunken desk clerk thinks that the pair are married.

Madame Matroppo enters and informs Eddie that Elsie Lilly and Dick are also staying at the Inn.

Dick enters and expresses his confusion about Eddie's behavior towards his “wife” to Madame Matroppo (“If I Find the Girl”).

Eddie meets Madame Matroppo at dinner but she refuses to sit with him and says he must go upstairs to dine with his "wife".

Georgina and Percy arrive at the Inn but they can't be sure whether Eddie and Elsie Darling are guests because the register is ruined.

Dick meets Percy and Georgina and informs them that the "newlyweds" Eddie and Elsie Darling are at the Inn.

Eddie bought a few left over roses from Dick and knocks on Elsie Darling's door to give them to her.

Eddie tells Elsie Darling that Madame Matroppo is suspicious of their “marriage” so they decide to speak very lovingly to each other in the hope that she can hear them.

Produced by Elisabeth Marbury and F. Ray Comstock, the original Broadway production opened on December 23, 1915 at the Princess Theatre.

[7] In 1975, the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut revived the show to great acclaim, prompting the producers to transfer it to Broadway.

The cast, directed by Bill Gile, and choreographed by Dan Siretta, included Charles Repole, Virginia Seidel, James Harder, and Travis Hudson.

[7] In addition to the original lyricists, the 1975–1976 productions included lyrics by P. G. Wodehouse, Anne Caldwell, Frank Craven and Graham John.