 He urged her to accept the lead in "Happy Hunting", with a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse (who had written "Call Me Madam") and a score by the unknown team of Harold Karr and Matt Dubey.Merman acquiesced to her husband's demands, although she clashed with the composers from the start and soon was at odds with co-star Fernando Lamas and his wife Arlene Dahl, who frequently attended rehearsals.Based on the Merman name, the show opened in New York with an advance sale of $1.5 million, and despite the star's dissatisfaction with it, garnered respectable reviews.