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''Florodora'' is an Edwardian musical comedy and became one of the first successful Broadway musicals of the 20th century. The book was written by Jimmy Davis under the pseudonym Owen Hall, the music was by Leslie Stuart with additional songs by Paul Rubens, and the lyrics were by Edward Boyd-Jones and Rubens. The original London production opened in 1899 where it ran for a very successful 455 performances. The New York production was even more popular, opening the following season and running for 552 performances. After this, the piece was produced throughout the English-speaking world and beyond. The show was famous for its double sextet and its chorus line of "Florodora Girls". The piece was popular with amateur theatre groups, particularly in Britain, into the 1950s.〔Bond, Ian. ("Rarely Produced Shows" ). St. David's Players, accessed 22 July 2010〕 ==Background== ''Florodora'' was the first of a series of successful musicals by Stuart, including ''The Silver Slipper'' (1901), ''The School Girl'' (1903), ''The Belle of Mayfair'' (1906), and ''Havana'' (1908). Upon opening in London on 11 November 1899 at the Lyric Theatre, the show originally starred Evie Greene, Willie Edouin and Ada Reeve Running for an astounding-for-the-time 455 performances, and closing in March 1901, the show would prove as a training ground for numerous up-and-coming stars of the British theatre. After moving to the Casino Theatre on Broadway in 1900, the spectacle ran for an astonishing 552 performances – the first instance of a London production achieving such a Broadway run, and only the third longest run on Broadway of any theatre piece up to that time. The show was subsequently mounted in Australia in 1900 by J. C. Williamson where it enjoyed another incredibly long run.〔Pendennis. (Observer, ) ''The Lorgnette'', Volume XX, Issue 1106, 10 March 1900, p. 16〕 In addition to the numerous local productions being mounted throughout the English-speaking world and beyond, including productions translated into more than a dozen languages, the show toured extensively with numerous local touches, and engaging audiences both domestically as well as around the world as a result.〔Kenig, Marc. "Reviving a Legend of Musical Theatre", ''The Patter Post'', Lyric Theatre, San Jose, California, May 2009, pp. 6–10〕 The Original Cast Album was made as well, featuring all six original sextet members from the New York Cast: Marie Wilson, Agnes Wayburn, Marjorie Relyea, Vaughn Texsmith, Daisy Green and Margaret Walker. Recorded on a series of six 78 RPM gramophone records with a full libretto enclosed, the album was a first for musical theatre at that time.〔 London's West End staged two successful revivals in 1915 as well as in 1931, and several Broadway revivals enjoyed great success as well, the first being mounted a mere year after the closing of the original production in 1901 followed by another notable foray into the public eye three years later. In one of the more well-known revivals to modern audiences, a young Milton Berle played one of the ''Florodora Boys'' in a production mounted for the 1920–21 Broadway season.〔 More recently, the show was revived once again at the Finborough Theatre in January 2006 for the first professional London production that it had enjoyed in many years.〔(Information from the Finborough Theatre archive page )〕 ''Florodora's'' famous double sextet, "", became the most successful show tune of its time. Other songs ranged from traditional waltzes such as "The Silver Star of Love" and "The Fellow Who Might" to the more quirky type rhythmic and long-lined dance numbers for which Stuart was known. A good part of the success of the musical was attributed to its lovely chorines, called "the English Girls" in the score, but soon popularly dubbed the "Florodora Girls". They consisted of a "sextette of tall, gorgeous damsels, clad in pink walking costumes, black picture hats and carrying frilly parasols () swished onto the stage and captivated New York for no other reason than they were utterly stunning."〔W. A. Swanberg, ''Citizen Hearst: A Biography of William Randolph Hearst'', Scribner (1961), p. 225〕 More than 70 women, each 5 ft. 4 in. (about 1.63 m) tall and weighing in at 130 lb (59 kg) played these roles in the first run of the play. Pretty and petite, the girls were also the object of a great deal of popular adoration, and many young male admirers persuaded a good number of the girls in the show to leave and settle down. According to W. A. Swanberg: "Each member of its original sextette married a millionaire."〔 A 1930 MGM film starring Marion Davies was called ''The Florodora Girl''.〔 and in the ''Our Gang Follies of 1936'' the children's troupe known to modern audiences as The Little Rascals satirized the show in a penny-per-head basement performance. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Florodora」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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