City of Girls

Billy’s presence at the Lily encourages everyone to adopt his bad habits and drink to excess. He and Peg start making the rounds of all the nightclubs on a regular basis. Together, they are a sparkling combination of wit and charm that gathers an admiring throng wherever they go. Unfortunately, Peg can’t handle her liquor as well as Billy can. One night, Celia and Vivian return in the wee hours to find Billy and Peg passed out on the couch. After waking, Billy asks the girls to help him carry Peg upstairs, where they encounter an angry Olive. Vivian describes the scene: “‘She’s not like you,’ Olive said, and unless I was mistaken, her eyes were sprinkled with tears. ‘She can’t stop after ten drinks. She never could’” (178).

On Billy’s insistence, the production is holding a casting call to fill the extra roles he’s written for the play. A key role will be that of Lucky Bobby, a street-smart kid who marries the character played by Celia and teaches Edna’s character to gamble. After several auditions by actors unsuited to the part, a brash young man strolls onstage and announces that he is the right person to play the character. Billy immediately likes the actor and hires him.

His name is Anthony Roccella, and he is as street smart as his character, having grown up in Hell’s Kitchen. Vivian is instantly attracted to Anthony’s lazy self-assurance. He seems content to accept whatever life dishes out. Vivian falls head over heels in love with him, and the two begin a torrid affair. Their assignations take place in a fourth-floor walkup belonging to Anthony’s brother. With Vivian’s attention consumed by her romance, she begins to make mistakes in her work. Edith advises her, “As my worst ex-husband—that awful director—used to say to me, ‘Live your life as you wish, my peach, but don’t let it bitch up the bloody show’” (196).

The debut of City of Girls is set for November 29, 1940, in hopes of attracting a holiday audience. Rehearsals are going well. Even though Vivian is convinced that Anthony is the best thing about the show, she’s also impressed by the nuances Edna is bringing to the character of Mrs. Alabaster. She says, “Edna transformed Mrs. Alabaster into a woman of knowing—a woman who knew how ridiculous her life was […] She was ironic, but not cold. The effect was a survivor who had not lost the ability to feel” (198-99).

Arthur, on the other hand, keeps forgetting his lines and unconsciously whistles along with the orchestra even while in character. Peg and Olive get into an argument about ticket prices with Olive insisting that raising prices will drive away the Lily’s regular patrons. Their shouting match leaves Olive hurt, and she retreats upstairs to her room.

That night, as Vivian returns to the Lily after meeting up with Anthony, she discovers an unusual scene on the third floor. Benjamin is playing the piano softly as Peg and Olive dance slowly together. The couple is oblivious to anyone else, and Benjamin turns to regard Vivian, warning her to leave. She goes to a diner to kill some time. Hours later, back in her room, she asks Celia about Peg’s relationship with Olive: “‘Come on, Celia. This is important. Wake up. Listen to me. Is my Aunt Peg a lesbian?’ ‘Does a dog bark?’ Celia replied, and she was sound asleep in the very next instant” (210).

On opening night, the entire production staff and cast are emotional wrecks, but the initial reviews are positive, and critics give glowing praise to Edna’s performance. During intermission, Billy tells Vivian to wander around the crowd to gauge their reactions to the play. He says:

When an audience is happy with what they’re watching, they always look so goddamn proud of themselves. As if they made the play themselves, the selfish bastards. Go out there and tell me if they’re looking proud of themselves. (221)

Vivian is happy to report that the audience looks as Billy describes. After the show, everyone goes to Sardi’s Restaurant to await the morning edition reviews from all the papers. The decision is unanimous: City of Girls is a hit. Even Vivian’s costume designs are praised in the press. When she wanders over to the restaurant bar to order another drink, Vivian bumps into her brother Walter. He’s in New York because he’s just joined the Navy and is waiting for Officer’s Candidate School to start in three weeks. Vivian is startled to learn that Walter will be staying at the Lily until his training begins.

In the week that follows its debut, City of Girls becomes the hottest ticket in town. People are being turned away because the show is sold out for weeks in advance. Edna’s performance has turned her into a Broadway star. As Vivian explains to Angela, it isn’t critics who can make an actor a star: “What makes someone a star is when the people decide to love you en masse. When people are willing to line up at the stage door for hours after a show just to catch a glimpse—that makes you a star” (231).

Despite the show’s success, Olive still frets about what will happen after the run is over. Will the Lily be able to depend on its old audience, or has something fundamentally changed? Despite her misgivings, Olive grudgingly tells Billy that he did a good job with the play. Tension develops between Vivian and William because he doesn’t think Anthony is marriage material. Vivian begins making little suggestions to her boyfriend about his attire and the place where he lives, hoping to make him more acceptable to her brother, but Anthony stubbornly refuses to change.

William and Anthony get on one another’s nerves so much that they almost come to blows. Later, William asks Vivian to promise that she won’t let things get out of hand with Anthony. Vivian allows her brother to continue to believe that she’s still a virgin and will never sleep with her boyfriend. She says, “My heart broke a little in that moment—watching my brother dig so deep into his pristine imagination, desperately searching for ways to think the best of me” (239).