After her song, Rita sees that the rest of the contestants are making their way into the ballroom and follows them inside with hopes of finding her partner there. Inside, emcee Mick Hamilton gets the marathon underway ("Everybody Dance"). The rules: contestants must dance for forty-five minutes every hour, followed by a fifteen-minute break; if they fall, collapse, or for any reason stop dancing, they will be disqualified. Realizing at the last minute that her partner is a no-show, Rita is forced to accept Bill's offer and quickly discovers he has two left feet. He tells Rita about his daredevil stunts at the Trenton Air Show where he crashed his plane but bought the winning raffle ticket for a kiss and a dance from 'Lindy's Lovebird.' In song, he tells her how this is his "Second Chance." During the first fifteen-minute break, other partners introduce themselves: Shelby Stevens, a former cook in a lumber camp who knows how to get around, and harmonica virtuoso Luke Adams; struggling young newlyweds from Utah, Precious and Happy McGuire; Olympic wrestler Johnny Adel and one-time socialite Dora Foster; and vaudeville brother-and-sister team Bette and Buddy Becker. While the contestants meet one another, Rita sneaks off to Mick, where it is revealed that he and she are secretly married. Their scheme: Mick makes sure she wins, they take the prize money, and move on to the next town. Mick promises her that this marathon will be the last, but as she leaves to get ready for the next hour, he confides in his sidekick, Mr. Walker, that this, too, is a trick and there are many more marathons ahead ("A Powerful Thing"). As time passes, the contestants begin dropping off from exhaustion. Mick tries to bring publicity to the marathon, first showcasing Rita's fame ("Dance With Me/The Last Girl"), then Shelby's vocal talents ("Everybody's Girl"), and finally decides publicize the romance between Bill and Rita and plans a pretend dance floor wedding, insisting that Rita tell Bill in spite of her misgivings. After the "Two Step," Rita goes to tell Bill the plan and finds him on the boardwalk. After joking about Bill's inability to swim ("Wet"), Rita kisses Bill and quickly retreats, realizing that she's falling for him. Remembering that she didn't get the chance to tell Bill of Mick's plan, Rita gets frightened as Mick brings Bill on stage to make the announcement himself on the nightly radio broadcast, but Bill proposes anyway, unprompted by either.