Once More, with Feeling A Comedy

One More, with feeling tells the story of egomaniacal and temperamental Victor Fabian a conductor and his wife Dolly a harpist who acts on her husband's behalf, presenting his impossible demands to the symphony's backers, only to then find him dallying with a considerably younger musician. When Dolly decides to leave him, Victor's conducting suffers and the orchestra needs her back. His agent, Max Archer, tries to get him a new contract, but young Wilbur, son of the orchestra's patron saint, insists to Victor's horror that any agreement must include a performance of his mother's favorite song, John Philip Sousa's Stars and Stripes Forever. Rather than return, Dolly wants a divorce so she can marry Dr. Richard Hilliard, a physicist. An angry Victor blurts out that to be divorced, two people must first be married. It turns out colleagues only assumed Victor and Dolly were husband and wife, and they never actually tied the knot. Victor won't grant a quick marriage and equally quick divorce unless she agrees to live with him for three more weeks. A frustrated Dolly tells both she just wants to live alone. She applauds from the audience as Victor, with great reluctance, launches the orchestra into a rousing Stars and Stripes Forever.