Bells Are Ringing is a musical comedy by Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Jule Styne centered on Ella Peterson, an operator at the Susanswerphone answering service who cannot resist getting personally involved in the lives of the clients whose calls she takes. Adopting different voices and invented personas to nudge her callers toward happiness, she becomes especially entangled with Jeff Moss, a talented but blocked and lonely playwright she knows only by his voice and coaches, anonymously, back toward confidence and productivity. When Ella finally meets Jeff in person under a false identity, romantic complications and mistaken-identity mishaps ensue as she tries to keep her secret intact. The show's tuneful score includes the standards "Just in Time" and "The Party's Over," and its premise taps into a bygone era of switchboard operators and personal telephone service with warmth and whimsy. Light, romantic, and full of comic incident, it remains a charming showcase for a spirited leading lady.

​