Too Many Girls is a Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 musical comedy and a 1940 film version of the show, starring Lucille Ball

Lucille Ball

Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...

.

Broadway version

Too Many Girls opened October 18, 1939, with music by Richard Rodgers

Richard Rodgers

Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...

, lyrics by Lorenz Hart

Lorenz Hart

Lorenz "Larry" Milton Hart was the lyricist half of the famed Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart...

 and book by George Marion Jr.

George Marion Jr.

George Marion Jr. was an American screenwriter. He wrote for 106 films between 1920 and 1940.He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and died in New York, New York from a heart attack. His father was George F...

 It was produced by George Abbott

George Abbott

George Francis Abbott was an American theater producer and director, playwright, screenwriter, and film director and producer whose career spanned more than nine decades.-Early years:...

. It ran for 249 performances at the Imperial Theatre, moving to the Broadway Theatre

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 in 1940.

The cast included Desi Arnaz

Desi Arnaz

Desi Arnaz was a Cuban-born American musician, actor and television producer. While he gained international renown for leading a Latin music band, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra, he is probably best known for his role as Ricky Ricardo on the American TV series I Love Lucy, starring with Lucille Ball, to...

, Richard Kollmar, Eddie Bracken

Eddie Bracken

Edward Vincent "Eddie" Bracken was an American actor.-Life and career:Bracken was born in Astoria, New York, the son of Catherine and Joseph L. Bracken. Bracken performed in vaudeville at the age of nine and gained fame with the Broadway musical Too Many Girls in a role he reprised for the 1940...

, and Van Johnson

Van Johnson

Van Johnson was an American film and television actor and dancer who was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios during and after World War II....

.

Film version

Arnaz and Bracken repeated their roles in the 1940 RKO Radio Pictures movie version.

This was Lucille Ball

Lucille Ball

Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...

 and Desi Arnaz

Desi Arnaz

Desi Arnaz was a Cuban-born American musician, actor and television producer. While he gained international renown for leading a Latin music band, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra, he is probably best known for his role as Ricky Ricardo on the American TV series I Love Lucy, starring with Lucille Ball, to...

's first film together. The two had previously met at the RKO studio commissary while Lucy was filming Dance, Girl, Dance

Dance, Girl, Dance

Dance, Girl, Dance is a film released in 1940, directed by Dorothy Arzner.In 2007, Dance, Girl, Dance was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", describing it as Arzner's...

. At that time, Lucy was costumed as a burlesque dancer who had recently been in a fight. Desi initially dismissed her as a "tough broad" who could never play an innocent college girl.

For some reason the popular song "I Like to Recognize the Tune" did not appear in the film version, but it did appear in a later Lucille Ball film, Meet the People

Meet the People

Meet the People was a 1944 MGM patriotic film made during World War II with Lucille Ball and Dick Powell that took its title from a successful Los Angeles stage revue...

(MGM, 1944).

Van Johnson, who was an understudy to all 3 male leads in the theatrical version of 1939, only makes an uncredited, non-speaking cameo appearance in the film version.

Act 1

• Heroes in the Fall - Second Robin Hood and Squad
• Tempt Me Not - Manuelito, Clint Kelley, First Co-Ed, Second Co-Ed, Third Co-Ed, Fourth Co-Ed, Fifth Co-Ed and Sixth Co-Ed
• My Prince - Consuelo Casey
• Pottawattamie - Harvey Casey and Mr. Lister
• Pottawattamie (Reprise) - Male Quartette and Ensemble
• 'Cause We Got Cake - Eileen Eilers
• Love Never Went to College - Consuelo Casey and Clint Kelley
• Spic and Spanish - Pepe
• I Like to Recognize the Tune - Jojo Jordan, Consuelo Casey, Eileen Eilers, Clint Kelley and Al Terwillinger
• Look Out - Eileen Eilers and Company

Act 2

• The Sweethearts of the Team - Eileen Eilers and Co-Eds
• She Could Shake the Maracas - Pepe and Manuelito
• I Didn't Know What Time It Was - Consuelo Casey and Clint Kelley
• Spic and Spanish (Reprise) - Pepe, Consuelo Casey, Eileen Eilers, Al Terwillinger, Clint Kelley, Jojo Jordan, Manuelito and Talullah Lou
• Too Many Girls - Manuelito
• Give It Back to the Indians - Eileen Eilers