Mattoon Opera excerpt, Thatcher and the reporters

One of the mainstays of the opera is the Sextette (or quintet or octette, etc) where several characters sing together in often overlapping lines. To me, in this story, is Thatcher meeting with her fellow reporters, who are separate people but appear as one "character."

Narrator: Charters opens the door to his hotel room,
dog-tired and ready for sleep.

Charters: That bed looks so good.

Thatcher: Doesn't it though?

Charters: Forty winks sounds good.

Thatcher: You forget, roomie,
that we're on my shift now.

Charters: But, I just need a little sleep.

Thatcher: If you  didn't sleep last night
that's your problem. 
I was out all night
covering this gasser,
and I'll be asleep
as soon as I wire this story
to Chicago. 
Didn't you hear
all the commotion
last night?

Charters: No, it was a little quiet
where I was. 
I was locked up in jail.

Thatcher: That's right. 
I forgot. 
You don't need sleep,
you need a stiff drink. 
Come with me.

Narrator: Harry's Bar is the reporter's hangout. 
Half a dozen newsmen monopolize
the tables near the door.

Rep #1:   My editor called and he wants more facts.

Rep #2:   My editor called and he wants more photos.

Rep #3:   My editor said he needs more quotes.

Rep #4:   My editor said he needs something for the roto.

Thatcher: My editor called and he wants more bicarbonate.

Rep #1:   Thatcher, you're a sight for sore eyes.

Rep #2:   Come over and sit down, Sister Rat.

Rep #3:   The paper's been put to bed.

Rep #4:   And we're getting ready to tuck it in.

Thatcher: You fellows look like
you've been tucking it in
for a couple of hours now.

Rep #1:   Thatcher, you've got us all wrong!

Rep #2:   We would never start festivities...

Rep #3:   Until the Her Royal Highness
has arrived.

Rep #4:   Gentlemen, please stand. 
I give you The Pulitzer Princess!

Rep #1:   The Hearst Heiress!

Rep #2:   The Five-Star Filly!

Rep #3:   The Blue-Streak Bathsheba!

Rep #4:   The Copyboy's Cleopatra!

Thatcher: All right.  I get the idea. 
You bums squeeze over. 
I'm trailing baggage today. 
Meet the soldier boy.

Rep #1:   Glad to meet you, soldier.

Rep #2:   Park it right there, Patton.

Rep #3:   Seen much action, soldier?

Rep #4:   He means over in the European Theatre.

Charters: I didn't think he meant in the Bijou.

Thatcher: Leave him be, boys,
or we're gonna send him back
to the front with a case of
battle fatigue.

Rep #1:   The best thing in the world
for a case of battle fatigue...

Rep #2:   Is a case of Kentucky bourbon.

Rep #3:   To Patton and the First Army.

Rep #4:   Patton is with the Third Army?

Rep #3:   He is?  Well, who's on First?

Thatcher: Did you boys all file your stories?

Rep #1:   You mean Ramona Driskell on Winnetka Ave?

Rep #2:   Filed.  Hours ago.

Rep #3:   Filed and forgotten.

Rep #4:   "Phantom makes Big Noise on Winnetka."

Rep #1:   Nice,  But, of course,
your editor will kill it.

Rep #4:   You can't be talking about my editor.

Rep #3:   Yeah.  You must mean some other
illiterate son-of-a-bitch
with the personality of
a bowl of stewed prunes.

Rep #2:   Before they made him,
they broke the mold.

Rep #1:   Reminds me of an editor
I worked for in St. Louis. 
He ran the Hindenberg story
in the obits because he thought
it was the German Chancellor.

Rep #2:   My editor was so dumb...

Rep #3:   My editor was so dumb...

Rep #4:   My editor was so dumb,
he listened to the publisher!

Rep #1:   So what's the latest on the great man-hunt?

Rep #2:   I hear the chief is holding a secret suspect.

Rep #3:   I hear the chief is holding a secret bottle.

Rep #4:   Bottom right drawer,
right next to his good conduct medal.

Rep #2:   Any ideas about that, Thatcher?

Thatcher: I don't know anything about good conduct, boys.

Rep #1:   Now, what's the line on this phantom? 
I'm doing an opinion piece
for the Sunday edition.

Rep #3:   Smart money says it's somebody
with a knack for chemistry
and a grudge against this town.

Rep #4:   I heard the chief rousted
the whole high school chemistry class.

Rep #3:   There's one fella from
a socially prominent family.  

Rep #2:   A chemistry whiz who's gone round the bend.  

Rep #3:   Mixes up helium high balls
in his basement laboratory.

Thatcher: Do you know who they're talking about?

Charters: Sounds like Arnold Sweetland. 
Brilliant, but a little unbalanced. 
The richest family in town.

Rep #4:   Fear mongers say it's an escaped German POW.

Rep #2:   The paranoid element
believes it's a new
secret government experiment
that they don't want
to tell us about.

Rep #3:   Long money says it's Mussolini hisself.

Rep #4:   Around the barber shop,
the feeling is it's
the mayor's brother-in-law. 
Up from Missouri.

Rep #1:   Which is a good place to be up from. 
Okay fellas, give me a quote.

Rep #2:   We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.

Rep #3:   You can't cheat an honest man.

Rep #4:   It never rains but it pours.

Rep #1:   The mayor, reached at
his campaign headquarters said...

Rep #2:   A vote for me is a vote for graft!

Rep #3:   Honest, she told me she was eighteen!

Rep #4:   If Hearst can't take a joke
he can kiss my hairy butt!

Rep #1:   Okay.  That's good for the city edition. 
Now, how about the blue streak?

Thatcher: That does it for me, gentlemen,
and I use the term loosely.

Rep #2:   No news out there Thatcher. 
This phantom is strictly
a nocturnal creature.

Rep #3:   You want to be careful. 
You don't want to mix
with the natives unless
you've had all your shots.

Rep #4:   We don't want to be
seeing your name in the papers.

Rep #1:   Not even your byline.

Charters: Goodbye, gentlemen.

Rep #2:   So long, general. 
It's been nice chatting.

Rep #3:   We'll meet back here
under the clock when
the war's over.

Rep #4:   Smoke 'em if you've got 'em,
general.

SFX:   Thatcher and Charters leave the bar.