Let's Face It!

Three suspicious wives, Maggie Watson, Nancy Collister and Cornelia Pigeon, invite three Army inductees to Maggie's summer house in Southampton on Long Island in order to make their husbands jealous. Jerry Walker is engaged to Winnie Potter, and, because he needs the money, agrees to the plot. The wives' philandering husbands leave on yet another camping trip. Winnie, hearing of Jerry's involvement, brings in two friends (who are actually girlfriends of the other two soldiers) to pretend to be interested in the older men. The husbands actually do go fishing. Winnie and her friends crash Maggie's party and the husbands unexpectedly return home.

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;Act I

• "Milk, Milk, Milk" – Ensemble
• "A Lady Needs a Rest" – Maggie, Nancy, Cornelia
• "Jerry, My Soldier Boy" – Winnie
• "Let's Face It" – The Royal Guards
• "Farming" – Jerry, Frankie, Eddie, Muriel, Jean, Ensemble
• "Ev'rything I Love" – Jerry and Winnie
• "Ace in the Hole" – Winnie, Muriel, Jean, Ensemble
• "You Irritate Me So" – Jean and Eddie
• "Baby Games" – Jerry, Maggie, Frankie, Cornelia, Nancy, Eddie
• "A Fairy Tale" – Jerry
• "Rub Your Lamp" – Winnie

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;Act II

• "I've Got Some Unfinished Business with You" – Winnie, Jean, Muriel, Dorothy, Gloria, Julian, Judge Pigeon
• "Let's Not Talk About Love" – Jerry
• "Let's Talk About Love" – Maggie
• "A Little Rumba Numba" – The Royal Guards, Madge, Mary, Billy
• "I Hate You, Darling" – Nancy, George, Jerry, Maggie
• "Melody in Four F" – Jerry
• "Get Yourself a Girl" – The Royal Guards

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"A Fairy Tale" and "Melody in Four F" were written by Sylvia Fine and Max Liebman. Both were dropped later in the run, and "Melody in Four F" was replaced by "It Ain't Etiquette" from Du Barry Was a Lady.

The original production was directed by Edgar MacGregor and choreographed by Charles Walters. After a tryout at the Colonial Theatre in Boston, the musical opened on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre on October 29, 1941, and closed on March 20, 1943, after 547 performances. The cast included Danny Kaye as Jerry Walker, Eve Arden as Maggie Watson, Edith Meiser as Cornelia Abigail Pigeon, Vivian Vance as Nancy Collister, Benny Baker, Mary Jane Walsh as Winnie Potter, and Nanette Fabray. The cast also featured a then unknown Carol Channing as Eve Arden's understudy. Danny Kaye had made his successful debut earlier in the year in Lady in the Dark, and Porter allowed the actor's wife, Sylvia Fine, to add two comedy numbers into the score for him to sing. Later in the run, Carol Goodner replaced Eve Arden and José Ferrer replaced Kaye.

Tryouts in the UK began on June 23, 1942, at the Palace Theatre in Manchester, England. The West End production opened on November 19, 1942, at the Hippodrome Theatre and ran for 348 performances. It was directed by Bobby Howell and choreographed by Joan Davis. The cast included Bobby Howes as Jerry Walker and Pat Kirkwood as Winnie Potter.[http://www.sondheimguide.com/porter/letsfaceuk.html London Production at Sondheimguide.com]

An Australian production played from November 1943 to January 1944 at His Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article206362233 |title=AMUSEMENTS |newspaper=The Age |issue=27641 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=22 November 1943 |access-date=18 March 2018 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11803098 |title=LET'S FACE IT |newspaper=The Argus (Melbourne) |issue=30,380 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=10 January 1944 |access-date=18 March 2018 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}

42nd Street Moon in San Francisco, California, presented a staged concert version of the show in October 1999.[http://42ndstmoon.org/Schedule/letsfaceit.html 'Let's Face It' listing] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030107073059/http://www.42ndstmoon.org/Schedule/letsfaceit.html |date=2003-01-07 }} 42ndstmoon.org, retrieved January 19, 2010Connema, Richard.[http://www.talkinbroadway.com/regional/sanfran/s33.html Review] talkinbroadway.com, retrieved January 19, 2010 Musicals Tonight!, New York City, presented a staged concert version in May 2006.[http://www.musicalstonight.org/ARCHletsfaceit.html Listing] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101022132659/http://www.musicalstonight.org/ARCHletsfaceit.html |date=2010-10-22 }} musicalstonight.org, retrieved January 19, 2010

A 1943 screen adaptation featured Bob Hope and Betty Hutton. Although the plot remained the same, most of the Porter score was replaced by songs by other composers.[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036105/ Internet Movie Database listing, Let's Face It, 1943] imdb.com, accessed August 25, 2009

A made-for-television live broadcast of the show was presented on the NBC television network on November 21, 1954 on The Colgate Comedy Hour, with Bert Lahr as Frankie Burns / Aunt Pamela Burns, Vivian Blaine as Winnie Potter, Gene Nelson as Jerry Walker, and Betty Furness as Maggie Watson.[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0812113/ Internet Movie Database listing, Let's Face It, 1954] imdb.com, accessed August 25, 2009

Stephen Citron wrote in 2005: "No one ever has ever called Let's Face It a great musical. Nor did anyone expect it to be the smash hit that it was, least of all its producer. Freedley was not deceived into complacency when in The New Yorker Wolcott Gibbs called it 'brilliant foolishness', or Life Magazine dubbed it the season's 'smash' and declared, 'Porter has come out of his slump.' He knew it was the stars, especially Danny Kaye's brilliant double-talk routines, and the wartime escape atmosphere that filled the theatre nightly."Citron, Stephen. Noel & Cole: the Sophisticates. Hal Leonard Corporation (2005). {{ISBN|0-634-09302-9}}, p. 189

{{reflist}}

• {{IBDB title|1123}}
• [http://www.sondheimguide.com/porter/letsface.html Let's Face It at sondheimguide.com]
• {{YouTube|P6T-7jLRKCA|Let's Face It film clip}}

{{Cole Porter}}

{{Herbert Fields}}

{{Dorothy Fields}}

Category:Musicals by Cole Porter

Category:1941 musicals

Category:Broadway musicals

Category:Musicals by Herbert Fields

Category:Musicals set in New York