Florodora

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Florodora was one of the first successful Broadway musicals of the 20th century. The book was written by Jimmy Davis under the pseudonym Owen Hall, music was by Leslie Stuart with additional songs by Paul Rubens, and lyrics by Edward Boyd-Jones and Rubens. Originally opened in London on November 11, 1899 at the Lyric Theatre, where it ran for 455 performances, it moved to New York in 1900 and ran for an astonishing 552 performances -- the first instance of a London production achieving such a Broadway run, and the second longest run on Broadway of any theatre piece up to that time. There were also successful London revivals in 1915 and 1931. The show was also revived in New York in 1902, 1905 and 1920. The show also toured internationally. It was revived in January 2006 in its first professional London production and for many years thereafter at the Finborough Theatre, London.

"Florodora" refers to a perfume derived from the florodora flower which was grown on the Florodora island of the Philippines.

Florodora's famous double sextet, "Tell Me Pretty Maiden", became the most successful show tune of its time. Other songs ranged from traditional waltzes ("The Silver Star of Love" and "The Fellow Who Might") to the more quirkily rhythmic and long-lined numbers for which Stuart was known.

A good part of the success of the musical was attributed to its lovely sextet of chorines, called "the English Girls" in the score, but soon popularly dubbed the Florodora girls. These six roles were filled by identically sized women, all 5 ft. 4 in. (about 1.63 m) and 130 lb (59 kg), and were the object of popular adoration: young male admirers persuaded many to leave the show to marry them, and more than 70 women played these roles in the first run of the play in New York.

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).