Synopsis - Act One
The show opens the night before the cruise ship SS American is due to sail. Elisha Whitney, a successful Wall Street banker, is waiting
impatiently for his assistant, Billy Crocker, to meet him in the ship's bar. Billy is to drop off some items Whitney needs for his
vacation, and Whitney has to give Billy instructions to sell some stock for his personal account. It turns out that Billy forgot his
boss's passport, so he will have to deliver it to Whitney on the the following morning. By coincidence, Billy's old friend Reno Sweeney,
a sexy Evangelist turned nightclub singer, plans to travel on the same boat as Whitney. Reno is interested in Billy romantically -
I Get A Kick Out Of You, but Billy explains to her that he is in love with a girl named Hope. Reno even invites
Billy to join her on the trip, but Billy just isn't interested in her that way.
Transatlantic voyages usually draw celebrities, and therefore photographers. On this trip they are particularly interested in
getting pictures of Hope Harcourt, the American debutante. She is travelling with her fiance Lord Evelyn Oakleigh, a wealthy
Englishman, and her mother Evangeline Harcourt, a widow. The photographers are not so impressed by the arrival of Minister Henry T.
Dobson and his two Chinese converts, but they soon take notice when Reno Sweeney and her four Showgirl Angels board the ship.
It turns out that Evangeline and Whitney are old friends. When Billy boards the ship to drop off Whitney's passport, he finds
out that his long lost love, Hope, is a passenger, and is to be married.
As Billy tries to find Hope before the ship leaves the dock, we also meet Moonface Martin, a gangster and Public Enemy #13, who
has boarded the ship disguised coincidentally as a Minister, along with his friend Bonnie. When two hapless F.B.I. agents arrive
looking for Moonface, Billy inadvertently identifies Minister Dobson instead of the gangster. Dobson is thrown in the ship's brig,
and his two converts are left to wander the ship without supervision. Moonface and Bonnie are indebted to Billy, and thank him by
giving him the ticket and room of their friend who didn't make it on board. The problem is that their missing friend was Snake Eyes
Johnson, Public Enemy # 1, and wanted by the F.B.I. too. Now Billy is mistaken for Snake Eyes (Mr. Murray Hill Flowers on the ticket),
and must disguise himself for the rest of the trip in order to stay out of jail. He must also stay out of Whitney's sight, because his
boss specifically sent him off the ship and back to work in order to sell his stocks. But Billy thinks all this trouble is worthwhile,
since he has the chance to convince Hope to fall in love with him. Billy convinces Reno to help him win Hope's heart - You're The
Top.