City of Angels (musical)

Stone, a tough Los Angeles private eye, lies on a hospital gurney with a bullet in his shoulder and a lot on his mind. He flashes back to a week earlier, when his loyal Girl Friday secretary, Oolie, ushered in a rich, beautiful woman named Alaura. Alaura claims she wants Stone to find her missing stepdaughter, Mallory Kingsley, a beautiful "bad" girl. Against his better judgment, he takes the case.

A man at a typewriter appears onstage, and Stone and Alaura suddenly back up, "rewind," and play the scene with a few changes. The man at the typewriter is Stine, author of the popular detective novel City of Angels, which he is adapting into a screenplay at the behest of Hollywood producer-director Buddy Fidler. His wife Gabby has misgivings and wishes that he would stick to novels, but for now, Stine is enjoying the ride.

We begin to see the interplay between "reality" and fiction as Gabby (in the real world) and Oolie (in the story-within-the-story) lament how their men won't listen to them ("What You Don't Know About Women").

Stone, alone in his dreary bungalow, is listening to the radio: Jimmy Powers and the Angel City 4 are singing "You Gotta Look Out For Yourself." Two thugs break down his door, beat him up, and knock him out. Cut to Buddy Fidler reading this scene in the screenplay: we see that his secretary, Donna, is the model for Oolie, and that Buddy can't help meddling with everything ("The Buddy System").

Stone is rudely awakened by Lieutenant Munoz, who was Stone's partner on the force but now bears him a major grudge. Once, Stone loved a low-rent lounge singer named Bobbi, whom Stine based on Gabby ("With Every Breath I Take"). But Bobbi wanted stardom more than marriage, and when Stone caught her with a Hollywood producer (based on Buddy) tempers flared, a gun went off, and the producer was killed. Munoz has never forgiven Stone for "getting away with murder."

Stone, angry after the beating, confronts Alaura at her mansion and meets several more unsavory characters, including her lustful stepson, her polio-stricken elderly husband, and his quack doctor. Greed and malice hover like smog, but Alaura's charms and bankroll keep Stone on the case ("The Tennis Song"). He fruitlessly pursues the missing Mallory in a scene that recalls a film montage ("Ev'rybody's Gotta Be Somewhere"), only to find her waiting naked in his bed ("Lost And Found"). Stone somehow manages to resist temptation—which is more than can be said for his creator. After Gabby returns to New York, Stine takes comfort in Donna's bed.

A photographer breaks into Stone's bungalow and snaps a picture of him with Mallory. She runs off with his gun, which is subsequently used to murder the quack doctor. Stone is framed for the killing; Munoz gleefully arrests him ("All You Have To Do Is Wait").

Stine is having a lousy time of it too. Buddy is butchering his script, his conscience is nagging him about his infidelity, and Stone, his own creation, is disgusted with him. The curtain falls with each of them arguing, to a swinging big-band accompaniment, "You're Nothing Without Me."

In a recording studio, Jimmy Powers and the Angel City 4 are singing "Stay With Me," which then becomes a record playing in a bedroom that looks like Alaura's, but actually belongs to Carla Haywood, Buddy's wife, who will play Alaura in the movie.

Stone languishes in jail, attended only by Oolie, who like her alter ego, Donna, is feeling used by men ("You Can Always Count On Me"). Stone is mysteriously bailed out, but the two hoods catch up with him and nearly blow him up before he neatly turns the tables.

Stine has troubles of his own. Lonely at a Hollywood party of Buddy's sycophants, including a Hollywood composer ("Alaura's Theme"), Stine phones home only to find that Gabby has discovered that he cheated on her. He flies to New York with an elaborately prepared excuse, but she's not buying it ("It Needs Work").

Stone, fighting to clear his name, is led to a brothel ("LA Blues") where he is stunned to find Bobbi. We learn it was she who shot the producer; Stone has been covering for her all this time. Together, they face the wreckage of their love ("With Every Breath I Take").

In Hollywood, Stine is approached by a young starlet, Avril, who will be playing Mallory. She begs him to reconsider killing off Mallory near the end. He says he'll think about it.

Oolie, meanwhile, has discovered that Alaura is a fortune hunter who has already murdered one rich husband and is planning to do away with this one, once she had eliminated his son, daughter, and doctor. She tried to get her stepson, Peter, to kill the doctor and Mallory, but he couldn't bring himself to kill. Stone confronts her at the mansion; they grapple for her gun; shots ring out. Alaura falls dead, Stone is gravely wounded, and we're back where we started.

But where does that leave Stine? Gabby has rejected him and his lover, Donna, has been rewriting his script. Stine faces the collapse of his real and fictive worlds, and as his emotions take over, his wit turns bitter ("Funny"). When Stine arrives on the movie set to find that Buddy's name appears above his on the screenplay, and that the shallow crooner Jimmy Powers will play Stone, Stine boils over. With the "real" Stone, his conscience, finally leading him to make the right choice, he rages at Buddy, gets himself fired, and is about to get beat up by two security guards when Stone somehow appears at Stine's typewriter and writes him the fighting skills of a superhero, then tacks on a "Hollywood ending" in which Gabby returns, forgiving all. Together they celebrate ("I'm Nothing Without You") as the curtain falls.

• Stine - The author of the novel City of Angels, which he is adapting into a film.
• Gabby - Stine's wife. She is tired of his obsession with work and his unfaithfulness. She loves him, but eventually leaves him when she learns about his affair with Donna. (The actress playing Gabby also plays Bobbi.)
• Donna - Buddy's secretary. She has a brief affair with Stine, which leads to the end of his marriage with Gabby. However, she is far more manipulative than she appears. (The actress playing Oolie also plays Donna.)
• Carla Haywood - Buddy's wife, who will be playing Alaura in the film. She is having an affair with Jimmy Powers. (The actress playing Carla also plays Alaura.)
• Avril - A young Hollywood starlet who will be playing Mallory in the film. She is having an affair with Buddy. (The actress playing Avril also plays Mallory.)
• Buddy - The film producer. He is changing the integrity of the novel. He is married to Carla and having an affair with Avril. (The actor playing Buddy also plays Irwin.)
• Pancho Vargas - The actor playing Munoz in the film.
• Gerald Pierce - The actor playing Peter Kingsley in the film.
• Werner Kriegler - The actor playing Luther Kingsley in the film.
• Jimmy Powers - A popular singer, who appears in both the Hollywood scenes and in the fictional movie scenes. In the real world, Powers is having an affair with Carla.
• The Angel City 4 - Jimmy Powers' back-up singers, a close-harmony quartet who serve as a Greek chorus in the film world.
• Two Studio Guards, played by the same actors who play Sonny and Big Six

• Stone - A former police cop turned private eye detective, the hero of Stine's novel. The classic hard-boiled detective, who is hired to find Mallory Kingsley. Tough, wisecracking and quick-witted.He is irresistible to women, but only has room in his heart for the woman he has lost.
• Alaura Kingsley - A femme fatale trophy wife. She comes to Stone to have him find her missing step-daughter, but, it turns out that this is all a plot for Alaura to kill her step-children to take her soon-to-be late husband's money. She and Stone have a brief affair. She is shot and killed in a struggle with Stone. (The actress playing Alaura also plays Carla.)
• Bobbi - Stone's former girlfriend, A nightclub singer based directly on Stine's wife Gabby. (The actress playing Gabby also plays Bobbi.)
• Oolie - Stone's loyal Girl Friday. Unrequitedly in love with Stone, she goes to great lengths to protect and aid him. (The actress playing Oolie also plays Donna.)
• Mallory Kingsley - Alaura's beautiful, seductive step-daughter, whom Stone is hired to find. (The actress playing Mallory also plays Avril.)
• Detective Munoz - Stone's former partner, now a bitter rival. He believes that Stone repeatedly antagonizes him. His hatred of Stone has a racial element that Buddy Fiddler demands be deleted from the screenplay. (The actor playing Munoz also plays Pancho.)
• Irwin S. Irving - A Hollywood mogul Stone catches in bed with Bobbi. Inspired by Buddy. (The actor playing Irwin also plays Buddy.)
• Dr. Mandrill - A quack doctor hired by Alaura to care for Luther. He is later killed, seemingly by Peter, but really by Alaura.
• Luther Kingsley - Alaura's husband, Mallory and Peter's father. He is suffering from polio and encased in an iron lung. He dotes on Mallory.
• Peter Kingsley - Luther's son and Mallory's brother. He and Alaura concoct a scheme to kill Dr Mandrill, Luther, and Mallory to take all of the inheritance. He, however, cannot bring himself to kill, turning on Alaura.
• Jimmy Powers - A popular singer, who appears in both the Hollywood scenes and in the fictional movie scenes. In the real world, Powers is having an affair with Carla.
• The Angel City 4 - Jimmy Powers' back-up singers, a close-harmony quartet who serve as a Greek chorus in the film world.

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