 Dolly travels to Yonkers, New York to visit Horace.Ambrose Kemper (Tommy Tune), a young artist, wants to marry Horace's weepy niece, Ermengarde (Joyce Ames), but Horace opposes this because Ambrose's vocation does not guarantee a steady living.Horace, who is the owner of Vandergelder's Hay and Feed, explains to his two clerks, Cornelius Hackl (Michael Crawford) and Barnaby Tucker (Danny Lockin), that he is going to get married because "It Takes a Woman" to cheerfully do all the household chores.