AREN’T I LUCKY TO BE ME? We begin in the early 1920s as W.R. (William Randolph Hearst, one of the most powerful men in America) and LOUELLA PARSONS (the famous Hollywood gossip columnist), exult in what a fortunate multi-millionaire he is. TOUR GUIDE (Hold Your Own Ticket)  It is the present, and we are about to embark on a tour of San Simeon, William Randolph Hearst’s fabulous castle on the California Coast. DAISY Marion Davies, a much younger movie star and W.R.’s mistress, nicknamed DAISY, illustrates to Jimmy Love, a young, ambitious actor, how her family raised her to attract wealthy men. THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR TANGO W.R. tells how, back in 1898, he needed to raise his newspapers’ circulation. W.R. and WILLICOMBE, his secretary, sing of how handy it was that the Spanish-American War arrived, just in time! SUDDENLY SO ALIVE It is 1918, when Daisy was 15 and W.R. was 50 and they had just met, and Daisy discovers that W.R. is already married and can’t marry her; she’s on the verge of leaving him – until W.R. paints this graphic picture of how much he needs her… THE VIRGIN MARION In the late 1920s, as DAISY is on the set at MGM making a movie, she faces how much W.R. is forcing her to become his idealized vision of her, not who she really is. And she wonders how it all could have turned out differently if… RIDING ON THE WIND CONNIE (movie star Constance Talmadge), Daisy’s best friend, who is having a tortuous affair with MGM executive Irving Thalberg, sings of her difficult love life at a star-studded party at San Simeon. THE OLD SAN SIMEON RAG WILLICOMBE, W.R.’s secretary, lets us know how intensely he desires to get rid of Daisy, whom he’s sure is impeding W.R.’s political career. INDEPENDENT DAME DAISY, realizing that she, as W.R.’s mistress, is what’s keeping him from being President of the United States, is about to leave San Simeon and W.R.... THE LADY CAN WAIT MILLICENT HEARST, W.R.’s indomitable wife, is defeated for now as she realizes that Daisy is staying with W.R. But she vows never to give up trying to rid herself  of Daisy and we realize, once again, what a real threat Millicent and Willicombe are. WHAT MAKES A MAN? W.R. has just been denounced by Daisy for jealously destroying the career and driving to suicide the young actor Jimmy Love.  W.R. stubbornly sings of his life-long philosophy: all that matters is to win, no matter what the cost, preferably always to others. STARS! LOUELLA PARSONS, the famous gossip columnist, gloats over her power in Hollywood. IT’S TOO LATE TO LEAVE YOU / JUST YOU AND ME As our musical ends, DAISY and W.R. come to a mutual realization of how much they really mean to each other.