Show Synopsis:
Ruth and Eileen Sherwood go to New York to make new lives as a writer and an actress but finds that it is not easy. Eileen has started to fall in love with the Walgreens manager Frank, and invites him over for dinner, as well as Bob, an editor who told Ruth that she probably should quit trying to make it as a writer in New York, and Chick Clark, an editor who has feelings for Eileen. Eileen volunteers to hide a former football player named Wreck in their apartment when his girlfriend Helen needs to hide him from her visiting mother. Both Sherwood sisters start falling for Bob, but Bob tells Ruth off on the quality of her writing. Chick sends Ruth off on a fake story for his newspaper so that he can get Eileen alone, but the Brazilian navy cadets that she is supposed to be interviewing follow her home in a conga line and Eileen is arrested for disturbing the peace. She manages to beguile many men into doing her bidding at the jail, so she is not bothered by the fact that Ruth's new job as a promoter at a nightclub has not made enough money to bail her out. The Sherwood sisters are close to eviction, but Bob bails Eileen out of jail and tells her that he was fired for defending Ruth's story about the Brazilian cadets, which leads Eileen to believe that he is in love with Ruth. The sisters perform onstage at the nightclub, Chick's boss has offered Ruth a job based on her story about the cadets, and Bob tells Ruth that he loves her.

Character:
Ruth Sherwood, a determined young woman who wants to be a writer; frustrated with her lack of success, especially when she compares herself to her sister.

Song Context:
Ruth is bemused at how Eileen has already gotten three men to fall in love with her in their first twenty-four hours of being in New York. She wonders at her own lack of success with men. 

Fun Facts:
1. This musical is based on Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov's novel My Sister Eileen, which was based on a few short stories by Ruth McKenney in a collection that is also called My Sister Eileen. Fields and Chodorov wrote the book of Wonderful Town. 
2. Rosalind Russell originated the role of Ruth Sherwood on Broadway, reprising her role from the film adaptation of My Sister Eileen ten years previously. She was nominated for an Academy Award for the film role and won a Tony Award for her portrayal of Ruth in the musical version. 
3. Donna Murphy played Ruth in the 2003 Broadway revival of Wonderful Town and told Playbill in an interview that when she started rehearsing the role "It was surprising in the dimension of it. I think it's sort of easy to look at it and think of it just in a more two-dimensional way, but the minute you sort of step inside of it, you recognize that there is this real heart at the core of it, in the love that the sisters have for one another. And there is a pathos to it for Ruth in her journey that is just a pleasure to get to explore both ends of. I love it."