Summary of Naked City
WARNING: This is a full summary, all the way through the end of the show - there are many, many SPOILERS!
NOTE: I wrote this after watching the play, based on my own understanding. My Japanese comprehension is far from perfect, so there may be errors in this summary.
Featuring (Some romanizations are guesses):
Ayabuki Mao: Billy “The Famous” Fog, a photographer
Touno Asuka: Daisy Miller, a movie actress
Itsuki Chihiro: Mike Binder, a gangster
Itsumine Aki: Deenia Rosa, a gossip-rag publisher
Rika Masumi: Alicia, Billy’s stepmother
Sachimi Anna: Madam Paradise, owner of “Dancing To Night” troupe
Takashou Mizuki: Ike, Billy’s stepbrother
Yabuki Shou: William Wilson, a gangster boss & Daisy’s sugar-daddy
Aine Harei: Nicholai Daji, a missing person
Misuzu Aki: Bernard Stein, a gossip-rag flunky
Kashiro Kiho: Cathy Leeman, Billy’s Girl, a dancer in “Dancing To Night”
(This is from memory, so some things may be out of order.)
1950’s. Billy “The Famous” is the most infamous muck-raking photographer in New York. But when he takes a picture of popular movie star Daisy Miller entering a swank restaurant with mob-boss William Wilson, he gets more than he bargained for. The next day, Daisy herself shows up at the paper where he works – and she has a job offer for him: find the man in the photograph she provides, with no other information than his name: Nicholai Daji.
After arguing that he's a photographer, not a private investigator, but failing to dissuade Daisy, Billy agrees to take the case. His boss at the newspaper sends along one of her minions, Bernard, to help catch the story. Meanwhile, two police officers are also searching for Nicholai, without making much progress.
Surprisingly, Billy’s first stop is the Lower East Side – where he runs into his little sister Edna (an aspiring ballerina). He shows the picture to his stepbrother, Ike, who recognizes the man as a mobster on the run from both the police and his bosses. He suggests that Nicholai might be hiding out in Spanish Harlem. Just then Billy’s stepmother shows up and it becomes clear that the two have a very strained relationship, and his family situation is the main reason why Billy has such a negative opinion of the world. As we learn about Billy’s family, we find out that his father ran out on them years ago. Billy offers his stepmother money, but she won’t touch money he’s earned in his paparazzi work.
A scene around here has William and Daisy, with William’s fellow mob members putting the heat on him and William desperately informing them that Nicholai is the one who has what they need. William in turn puts pressure on Daisy, trying to determine if she’s in touch with Nicholai. After reminding her that he’s the one who got her her wonderful career as a movie star, he gives her a ring as a token of his love.
Billy and Bernard find their way to Harlem. After a little difficulty communicating with a local group of homeless folks, they learn that Nicholai is hiding out in a mannequin shop. Once inside, Nicholai gets the drop on them, and demands to know who sent them – the mob or the police? He’s surprised when Billy tells him it was Daisy, and he reveals the two’s relationship: he and Daisy grew up together and were sweethearts, but she dropped him for William.
Billy meets Daisy at a club – which just happens to be where Cathy works, and where Daisy worked before she became a star. As the two talk, Billy begins to realize he’s taking a personal interest in the case. Daisy tells him she likes his picture, because it showed her real, ugly self. When he tells her he found Nicholai, she decides to go there at once to see him, but Billy tries to dissuade her. The two share a brief, disconcerting dance, before Daisy runs off. Billy grabs his camera and follows her – telling Bernard he’s going to go take her and Nicholai’s picture when they meet. After all, he is a gossip photographer, and his job is to destroy the neat and pretty image of society.
Nicholai and Daisy are briefly reunited and Nicholai gives Daisy a locket, telling her to hide it somewhere William will never find it. He explains that it holds the secret of why they’re searching for him, and William won’t dare kill him until he finds it. Soon, William and a bunch of goons show up. Nicholai accuses Daisy of leading them to him, which she anxiously denies. William then explains that the ring he gave Daisy had a tracking device inside. She throws the ring away in disgust. A scuffle ensues, and Billy is shot in the arm – Nicholai is unable to escape, but Billy takes Daisy to safety at the club. In the scuffle, Billy has ended up with the locket.
End of Act I
At the beginning of Act II, we’re still at the club, and there’s some discussion among the various characters about how Daisy’s doing, the difficulty of the situation, and Billy’s emotional state. Billy makes another trip back home and his stepmother gives him a picture of his father and mother. Things really get going when Daisy sneaks into a room and starts going through Billy’s coat pocket. He discovers her there and asks if the locket is what she’s searching for. Apparently it contains some very incriminating microfilm. She tells Billy that she has to take the locket to William, to exchange for Nicholai. Billy points out that then they’ll just capture her too, and they’ll both be killed. When she insists on doing it anyway, he says he’ll go with her.
In a brief scene, Billy meets with Cathy and she tries to determine how he feels about Daisy. He denies being in love with her, but says that he liked that she said she liked his picture, and that her life’s such a mess, he wants to help her fix it. Usually, he shows everyone the dark underbelly, and that’s how he liked to live – to show everyone that the world isn’t the nice, pretty place they thought. She asks how he feels about love, and he says that life is much easier without it. Of course, since Cathy is in love with him, she has rather different feelings.
Billy comes up with a plan to help Daisy. When she expresses doubts, we learn the final secret: the father who abandoned Billy’s family is none other than Mike Binder, now one of the head gangsters! Using all Billy’s connections – Ike, the club owner, Cathy, the policeman, Bernard, even the “Mama” from the Harlem street gang, the plan is put into action. In a room beneath the club, William and Mike are questioning Nicholai, when Billy and Daisy arrive. Billy tells them that he’s given the film to a newspaper friend, and that if anything happens to the three of them, it will go straight to the police. The gangsters are flustered, but not defeated – one aims to shoot, but just then there’s a crash and the police burst through the basement wall. The bad guys flee.
Billy chases Mike through the streets, finally catching him in the mannequin shop. Mike manages to take his gun, but then Billy shows him the picture he got from his stepmother: Mike is shocked to realize that Billy is his son, and becomes so overwhelmed with shame that he aims the gun at his own head instead. Billy talks him down, and Mike quietly goes with the police.
A short time later, Billy takes Daisy to the train station. She is going back to work in California while she waits for Nicholai (to get out of jail, presumably). She is thankful to Billy for his help, particularly for helping her find a self she can like again. Billy is finally able to admit that he’s in love with her. Emotional health has been regained.
After Daisy leaves, Cathy appears at the station – but just as she and Billy gear-up for a heart-to-heart, a bag-snatcher strikes and runs off with her bag. Billy chases the man through the city (the ensuing scene is an echo of the number that opened the show). Just as he’s about to catch the man, William appears – and is executed by some fellow gangsters. Billy is shaken, but remembers his job and takes a photograph of the corpse as it lies in the middle of the sidewalk.
Life goes on in the Naked City.
THE END