A Gaiety Girl
Encyclopedia
A Gaiety Girl is an English musical comedy
in two acts by a team of musical comedy neophytes: Owen Hall
(book, on an outline by James T. Tanner
), Harry Greenbank
(lyrics) and Sidney Jones
(music). It opened at Prince of Wales Theatre
in London, produced by George Edwardes
, on 14 October 1893 (later transferring to Daly's Theatre
) and ran for 413 performances. The show starred C. Hayden Coffin
, Louie Pounds
, Decima Moore
, Eric Lewis
, and later Rutland Barrington
, Scott Russell
, Huntley Wright
, Marie Studholme
and George Grossmith, Jr.
Topsy Sinden
and later Letty Lind
danced in the piece. Choreography was by Willie Warde
. Percy Anderson
designed the Japanese costumes for the musical, while the non-Japanese costumes were supplied by leading fashion houses. Blanche Massey
was one of the Gaiety Girls
in the piece. It also had a successful three-month Broadway run in 1894, followed by an American tour and a world tour.
(1892), and would lead to a series of musicals produced by Edwardes that would pack the Gaiety Theatre
for decades. Although the earliest of these shows have the same sound one expects from Gilbert and Sullivan
's operas, Edwardes called them "musical comedies", leading some writers to incorrectly credit him with inventing a form that Harrigan & Hart had established on Broadway a decade earlier. Although Edwardes was not the true inventor of musical comedy, he was the first to elevate these works to international popularity. According to musical theatre writer Andrew Lamb
, "The British Empire and America began to fall for the appeal of the British musical comedy
from the time when A Gaiety Girl was taken on a world tour in 1894."
The plot of A Gaiety Girl is a simple intrigue about a stolen comb and includes a few tangled romances. Hall's satirical book includes lines which jab at society conventions in the style of an upmarket gossip columnist. The smart society back-chat irritated several people in high places in London who wrote to Edwardes asking for alterations. The public, on the other hand, loved it, even when the Reverend Brierly, a character depicted as a man of doubtful moral rectitude, was demoted, after pressure from Lambeth Palace, to being just plain Dr. Brierly. Satire is also directed, among other things, at the army, and the story ridicules a judge of the divorce court, which caused some controversy.
A Gaiety Girl's success confirmed Edwardes on the path he was taking. He immediately set Hall, Jones and Greenbank to work on their next show, An Artist's Model
. A Gaiety Girl led to some fourteen copies (including The Shop Girl
, The Circus Girl
, and A Runaway Girl
), which were very successful in England for the next two decades, and were widely imitated by other producers and playwriting teams.
The show's popularity depended, in part, on the beautiful "Gaiety Girls
" dancing chorus appearing onstage in bathing attire and in the latest fashions. According to The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Sunday, 23 December 1894, p.9a), "The piece is a mixture of pretty girls, English humor, singing, dancing and bathing machines and dresses of the English fashion. The dancing is a special feature of the performance, English burlesques giving much more attention to that feature of their attractiveness than the American entertainments of the same grade do." The 1890s Gaiety Girls were polite, well-behaved young women, respectable and elegant, unlike the corseted actresses from the earlier burlesques. They became a popular attraction and a symbol of ideal womanhood. Many of the best-known London couturiers designed costumes for stage productions by the 1890s, particularly for the Gaiety Girls. The illustrated periodicals were eager to publish photographs of the actresses in the latest stage hits, and so the theatre became an excellent way for clothiers to publicise their latest fashions.
The young ladies appearing in George Edwardes's shows became so popular that wealthy gentlemen, termed "Stage Door Johnnies", would wait outside the stage door hoping to escort them to dinner. In some cases, a marriage into society and even the nobility resulted. Alan Hyman
, an expert on burlesque theatre who penned the 1972 book The Gaiety Years, wrote:
Officers in the Life Guards
Gaiety Girls
A party of Gaiety girls and young society ladies are invited to a garden party given by the officers of the Life Guards
at Windsor, as are a judge of the divorce court, Sir Lewis Gray, and a chaplain, Dr. Montague Brierly. The officers neglect the society girls and focus on the Gaiety girls, while the judge, who married his housemaid, and the chaplain both amuse themselves at the party in a most unprofessional manner, the judge telling stories of ladies who have appeared before him in court, and the clergyman dancing in an inappropriate manner. The society ladies are chaperoned by a Lady Virginia Forest, who is worried that the judge will not remember her case. One of the Gaiety girls, Alma Somerset, is falsely accused of theft.
Act II
At a beach on the Riviera, all the ladies appear in bathing costumes, and the judge and chaplain flirt with Lady Virginia. Miss Somerset eventually marries Charles Goldfield, a wealthy cavalry officer.
ACT I - The Cavalry Barracks at Winbridge.
ACT II - On the Riviera.
Edwardian Musical Comedy
Edwardian musical comedies were British musical theatre shows from the period between the early 1890s, when the Gilbert and Sullivan operas' dominance had ended, until the rise of the American musicals by Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart, George Gershwin and Cole Porter following World War I.Between...
in two acts by a team of musical comedy neophytes: Owen Hall
Owen Hall
Owen Hall was the pen name of the Irish-born 19th and early 20th century theatre writer and theatre critic James Davis when writing for the stage...
(book, on an outline by James T. Tanner
James T. Tanner
James Tolman Tanner was an English stage director and dramatist who wrote many of the successful musicals produced by George Edwardes.-Life and career:...
), Harry Greenbank
Harry Greenbank
Harry Greenbank was an English author and dramatist best known for contributing lyrics to the successful series musicals produced at Daly's Theatre by George Edwardes in the 1890s.-Life and career:...
(lyrics) and Sidney Jones
Sidney Jones
James Sidney Jones , usually credited as Sidney Jones, was an English conductor and composer, most famous for producing the musical scores for a series of musical comedy hits in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods....
(music). It opened at Prince of Wales Theatre
Prince of Wales Theatre
The Prince of Wales Theatre is a West End theatre on Coventry Street, near Leicester Square in the City of Westminster. It was established in 1884 and rebuilt in 1937, and extensively refurbished in 2004 by Sir Cameron Mackintosh, its current owner...
in London, produced by George Edwardes
George Edwardes
George Joseph Edwardes was an English theatre manager of Irish ancestry who brought a new era in musical theatre to the British stage and beyond....
, on 14 October 1893 (later transferring to Daly's Theatre
Daly's Theatre
Daly's Theatre was a theatre in the City of Westminster. It was located at 2 Cranbourn Street, just off Leicester Square. It opened on 27 June 1893, and was demolished in 1937.-Early years:...
) and ran for 413 performances. The show starred C. Hayden Coffin
C. Hayden Coffin
Charles Hayden Coffin was an English actor and singer known for his performances in many famous Edwardian musical comedies, particularly those produced by George Edwardes....
, Louie Pounds
Louie Pounds
Louisa Emma Amelia "Louie" Pounds was an English singer and actress, known for her performances in musical comedies and in mezzo-soprano roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company....
, Decima Moore
Decima Moore
Lilian Decima, Lady Moore-Guggisberg, CBE , better known by her stage name Decima Moore, was an English singer and actress, known for her performances in soprano roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and in musical comedies. She was the youngest of ten siblings...
, Eric Lewis
Eric Lewis (actor)
Frederic Lewis Tuffley , better known by his stage name, Eric Lewis, was an English comedian, actor and singer...
, and later Rutland Barrington
Rutland Barrington
Rutland Barrington was an English singer, actor, comedian, and Edwardian musical comedy star. Best remembered for originating the lyric baritone roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas from 1877 to 1896, his performing career spanned more than four decades...
, Scott Russell
Scott Russell (actor)
Harry Henry Russell, better known as Scott Russell , was an English singer, actor and theatre manager best known for his performances in the tenor roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company...
, Huntley Wright
Huntley Wright
Huntley Wright was an English stage and film actor, comedian, dancer and singer, best known for creating roles in many important Edwardian musical comedies....
, Marie Studholme
Marie Studholme
Marie Studholme , born Caroline Maria Lupton or Marion Lupton, was an English actress and singer known for her supporting and sometimes starring roles in Victorian and Edwardian musical comedy...
and George Grossmith, Jr.
George Grossmith, Jr.
George Grossmith, Jr. was a British actor, theatre producer and manager, director, playwright and songwriter, best remembered for his work in and with Edwardian musical comedies...
Topsy Sinden
Topsy Sinden
Harriet Augusta Sinden , better known as Topsy Sinden, was an English dancer, actress and singer. She was best known for her performances in Edwardian musical comedy and pantomime, both in London and on tour. Sinden was an accomplished tap dancer and skirt dancer.-Life and career:Sinden was born...
and later Letty Lind
Letty Lind
Letitia Elizabeth Rudge, better known as Letty Lind , was an English actress, dancer and acrobat, best known for her work in burlesque at the Gaiety Theatre, and in musical theatre at Daly's Theatre, in London....
danced in the piece. Choreography was by Willie Warde
Willie Warde
Willie Warde was an English actor, dancer, singer and choreographer. The son of a dancer, his first theatre work was with a dance company. He was engaged to arrange dances for London productions and was later cast as a comic actor in musical theatre...
. Percy Anderson
Percy Anderson
Percy Anderson was an English stage designer and painter, best known for his work for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree's company at His Majesty’s Theatre and Edwardian musical comedies.-Life and career:...
designed the Japanese costumes for the musical, while the non-Japanese costumes were supplied by leading fashion houses. Blanche Massey
Blanche Massey
Blanche Massey was a Gaiety Girl and actress best known for her stage appearances in London and the United States in the 1890s. Among her appearances in many productions with the George Edwardes company, especially Edwardian musical comedies, she was perhaps most remembered for A Gaiety Girl...
was one of the Gaiety Girls
Gaiety Girls
Gaiety Girls were the chorus girls in Edwardian musical comedies, beginning in the 1890s at the Gaiety Theatre, London, in the shows produced by George Edwardes. The popularity of this genre of musical theatre depended, in part, on the beautiful dancing corps of "Gaiety Girls" appearing onstage in...
in the piece. It also had a successful three-month Broadway run in 1894, followed by an American tour and a world tour.
Importance in the development of the modern musical
A Gaiety Girl followed Tanner's and Edwardes's success with In TownIn Town (musical)
In Town is a musical comedy written by Adrian Ross and James T. Tanner, with music by F. Osmond Carr and lyrics by Ross. It was produced by George Edwardes at the Prince of Wales Theatre, opening on 15 October 1892, and transferred to the Gaiety Theatre on 26 December 1892, running for a...
(1892), and would lead to a series of musicals produced by Edwardes that would pack the Gaiety Theatre
Gaiety Theatre, London
The Gaiety Theatre, London was a West End theatre in London, located on Aldwych at the eastern end of the Strand. The theatre was established as the Strand Musick Hall , in 1864 on the former site of the Lyceum Theatre. It was rebuilt several times, but closed from the beginning of World War II...
for decades. Although the earliest of these shows have the same sound one expects from Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
's operas, Edwardes called them "musical comedies", leading some writers to incorrectly credit him with inventing a form that Harrigan & Hart had established on Broadway a decade earlier. Although Edwardes was not the true inventor of musical comedy, he was the first to elevate these works to international popularity. According to musical theatre writer Andrew Lamb
Andrew Lamb (writer)
Andrew Martin Lamb is an English writer, musicologist and broadcaster, known for his expertise in light music and musical theatre.-Biography:Lamb was born in Oldham, Lancashire, England, on 23 September 1942, the son of Harry Lamb, a schoolmaster, and his wife Winifred, née Emmott...
, "The British Empire and America began to fall for the appeal of the British musical comedy
Edwardian Musical Comedy
Edwardian musical comedies were British musical theatre shows from the period between the early 1890s, when the Gilbert and Sullivan operas' dominance had ended, until the rise of the American musicals by Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart, George Gershwin and Cole Porter following World War I.Between...
from the time when A Gaiety Girl was taken on a world tour in 1894."
The plot of A Gaiety Girl is a simple intrigue about a stolen comb and includes a few tangled romances. Hall's satirical book includes lines which jab at society conventions in the style of an upmarket gossip columnist. The smart society back-chat irritated several people in high places in London who wrote to Edwardes asking for alterations. The public, on the other hand, loved it, even when the Reverend Brierly, a character depicted as a man of doubtful moral rectitude, was demoted, after pressure from Lambeth Palace, to being just plain Dr. Brierly. Satire is also directed, among other things, at the army, and the story ridicules a judge of the divorce court, which caused some controversy.
A Gaiety Girl's success confirmed Edwardes on the path he was taking. He immediately set Hall, Jones and Greenbank to work on their next show, An Artist's Model
An Artist's Model
An Artist's Model is a two-act musical by Owen Hall, with lyrics by Harry Greenbank and music by Sidney Jones, with additional songs by Joseph and Mary Watson, Paul Lincke, Frederick Ross, Henry Hamilton and Leopold Wenzel. It opened at Daly's Theatre in London, produced by George Edwardes and...
. A Gaiety Girl led to some fourteen copies (including The Shop Girl
The Shop Girl
The Shop Girl was a musical comedy in two acts written by H. J. W. Dam, with Lyrics by Dam and Adrian Ross and music by Ivan Caryll, and additional numbers by Lionel Monckton and Ross. It was first produced by George Edwardes at the Gaiety Theatre in London, opening on 24 November 1894...
, The Circus Girl
The Circus Girl
The Circus Girl is a musical comedy in two acts by James T. Tanner and Walter Apllant , with lyrics by Harry Greenbank and Adrian Ross, music by Ivan Caryll, and additional music by Lionel Monckton....
, and A Runaway Girl
A Runaway Girl
A Runaway Girl is a musical comedy in two acts written in 1898 by Seymour Hicks and Harry Nicholls. The composer was Ivan Caryll, with additional music by Lionel Monckton and lyrics by Aubrey Hopwood and Harry Greenbank...
), which were very successful in England for the next two decades, and were widely imitated by other producers and playwriting teams.
The Gaiety Girls
The show's popularity depended, in part, on the beautiful "Gaiety Girls
Gaiety Girls
Gaiety Girls were the chorus girls in Edwardian musical comedies, beginning in the 1890s at the Gaiety Theatre, London, in the shows produced by George Edwardes. The popularity of this genre of musical theatre depended, in part, on the beautiful dancing corps of "Gaiety Girls" appearing onstage in...
" dancing chorus appearing onstage in bathing attire and in the latest fashions. According to The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Sunday, 23 December 1894, p.9a), "The piece is a mixture of pretty girls, English humor, singing, dancing and bathing machines and dresses of the English fashion. The dancing is a special feature of the performance, English burlesques giving much more attention to that feature of their attractiveness than the American entertainments of the same grade do." The 1890s Gaiety Girls were polite, well-behaved young women, respectable and elegant, unlike the corseted actresses from the earlier burlesques. They became a popular attraction and a symbol of ideal womanhood. Many of the best-known London couturiers designed costumes for stage productions by the 1890s, particularly for the Gaiety Girls. The illustrated periodicals were eager to publish photographs of the actresses in the latest stage hits, and so the theatre became an excellent way for clothiers to publicise their latest fashions.
The young ladies appearing in George Edwardes's shows became so popular that wealthy gentlemen, termed "Stage Door Johnnies", would wait outside the stage door hoping to escort them to dinner. In some cases, a marriage into society and even the nobility resulted. Alan Hyman
Alan Hyman (writer)
Alan Maurice Hyman was an English author, journalist and film writer.Hyman was the son of A Hyman, and was educated at St Cyprian's School, Repton School and Magdalene College, Cambridge. He became a journalist and worked on the staff of the Daily Sketch and Sunday Graphic from 1929 to 1932...
, an expert on burlesque theatre who penned the 1972 book The Gaiety Years, wrote:
- "...the chorus was becoming a matrimonial agency for girls with ambitions to marry into the peerage and began in the nineties when Connie Gilchrist, a star of the Old Gaiety, married the 7th Earl of Orkney and then in 1901, the 4th Marquess of HeadfortGeoffrey Taylour, 4th Marquess of HeadfortGeoffrey Thomas Taylour, 4th Marquess of Headfort DL, JP, FZS , styled Lord Geoffrey Taylour until 1893 and Earl of Bective between 1893 and 1894, was a British politician and Army officer....
married Rosie Boote, who had charmed London the previous year when she sang Maisie in The Messenger BoyThe Messenger BoyThe Messenger Boy is a musical comedy in two acts by James T. Tanner and Alfred Murray, lyrics by Adrian Ross and Percy Greenbank, with music by Ivan Caryll and Lionel Monckton, with additional numbers by Paul Rubens. The story concerned a rascally financier who tries to discredit a rival in love...
. After Connie Gilchrist and Rosie Boote had started the fashion a score of the Guv'nor'sGeorge EdwardesGeorge Joseph Edwardes was an English theatre manager of Irish ancestry who brought a new era in musical theatre to the British stage and beyond....
budding stars left him to marry peers or men of title while other Gaiety Girls settled for a banker or a stockbroker...."
Roles and original London cast
- Sir Lewis Gray (a judge) - Eric LewisEric Lewis (actor)Frederic Lewis Tuffley , better known by his stage name, Eric Lewis, was an English comedian, actor and singer...
(later replaced by Rutland BarringtonRutland BarringtonRutland Barrington was an English singer, actor, comedian, and Edwardian musical comedy star. Best remembered for originating the lyric baritone roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas from 1877 to 1896, his performing career spanned more than four decades...
)
Officers in the Life Guards
- Charles Goldfield - C. Hayden CoffinC. Hayden CoffinCharles Hayden Coffin was an English actor and singer known for his performances in many famous Edwardian musical comedies, particularly those produced by George Edwardes....
(later replaced by Scott RussellScott Russell (actor)Harry Henry Russell, better known as Scott Russell , was an English singer, actor and theatre manager best known for his performances in the tenor roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company...
) - Major Barclay - Fred Kaye
- Bobbie Rivers - W. Louis Bradfield
- Harry Fitzwarren - Leedham Bantock
- Romney Farquhar - Lawrance D'Orsey
- Lance - Gilbert Porteous
- Auguste (a bathing attendant) - Fitz Rimma
- Dr. Montague Brierly - Harry Monkhouse (later replaced by Huntley WrightHuntley WrightHuntley Wright was an English stage and film actor, comedian, dancer and singer, best known for creating roles in many important Edwardian musical comedies....
) - Rose Brierly (his daughter) - Decima MooreDecima MooreLilian Decima, Lady Moore-Guggisberg, CBE , better known by her stage name Decima Moore, was an English singer and actress, known for her performances in soprano roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and in musical comedies. She was the youngest of ten siblings...
- Lady Edytha Aldwyn (a Society lady) - Kate CutlerKate CutlerKate Ellen Louisa Cutler was an English singer and actress, known in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as an ingénue in musical comedies, and later as a character actress in comic and dramatic plays...
- Miss Gladys Stourton (a Society lady) - Marie StudholmeMarie StudholmeMarie Studholme , born Caroline Maria Lupton or Marion Lupton, was an English actress and singer known for her supporting and sometimes starring roles in Victorian and Edwardian musical comedy...
(later replaced by Coralie Blythe) - Hon. Daisy Ormsbury (a Society lady) - Louie PoundsLouie PoundsLouisa Emma Amelia "Louie" Pounds was an English singer and actress, known for her performances in musical comedies and in mezzo-soprano roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company....
- Lady Grey - E. Phelps
Gaiety Girls
Gaiety Girls
Gaiety Girls were the chorus girls in Edwardian musical comedies, beginning in the 1890s at the Gaiety Theatre, London, in the shows produced by George Edwardes. The popularity of this genre of musical theatre depended, in part, on the beautiful dancing corps of "Gaiety Girls" appearing onstage in...
- Alma Somerset (the title character) - Maud Hobson (later replaced by Marie StudholmeMarie StudholmeMarie Studholme , born Caroline Maria Lupton or Marion Lupton, was an English actress and singer known for her supporting and sometimes starring roles in Victorian and Edwardian musical comedy...
) - Cissy Verner - Blanche MasseyBlanche MasseyBlanche Massey was a Gaiety Girl and actress best known for her stage appearances in London and the United States in the 1890s. Among her appearances in many productions with the George Edwardes company, especially Edwardian musical comedies, she was perhaps most remembered for A Gaiety Girl...
- Haidee Walton - Ethel Selwick
- Ethel Hawthorne - Violet Robinson
- Mina (a French maid) - Juliette Nesville
- Lady Virginia Forest - Lottie VenneLottie VenneLottie Venne was a British comedienne, actress and singer of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, who enjoyed a theatre career spanning five decades. Venne began her stage career in musical burlesque before moving into farce and comedy. She appeared in several works by each of F. C. Burnand and W. S...
- Dancers - Topsy SindenTopsy SindenHarriet Augusta Sinden , better known as Topsy Sinden, was an English dancer, actress and singer. She was best known for her performances in Edwardian musical comedy and pantomime, both in London and on tour. Sinden was an accomplished tap dancer and skirt dancer.-Life and career:Sinden was born...
and later Letty LindLetty LindLetitia Elizabeth Rudge, better known as Letty Lind , was an English actress, dancer and acrobat, best known for her work in burlesque at the Gaiety Theatre, and in musical theatre at Daly's Theatre, in London....
Synopsis
Act IA party of Gaiety girls and young society ladies are invited to a garden party given by the officers of the Life Guards
Life Guards
Life Guards may refer to several military regiments:*Life Guards *Life Guards *Russian Imperial Guard*Garde du Corps , during the Ancien Régime...
at Windsor, as are a judge of the divorce court, Sir Lewis Gray, and a chaplain, Dr. Montague Brierly. The officers neglect the society girls and focus on the Gaiety girls, while the judge, who married his housemaid, and the chaplain both amuse themselves at the party in a most unprofessional manner, the judge telling stories of ladies who have appeared before him in court, and the clergyman dancing in an inappropriate manner. The society ladies are chaperoned by a Lady Virginia Forest, who is worried that the judge will not remember her case. One of the Gaiety girls, Alma Somerset, is falsely accused of theft.
Act II
At a beach on the Riviera, all the ladies appear in bathing costumes, and the judge and chaplain flirt with Lady Virginia. Miss Somerset eventually marries Charles Goldfield, a wealthy cavalry officer.
Musical numbers
- No. 1 - Opening Chorus - "When a masculine stranger goes by, array'd in a uniform smart..."
- No. 2 - Chorus & Song - Sir Lewis - "O sing a welcome fair to Mr. Justice Grey." & "I'm a judge..."
- No. 3 - Song - Goldfield - "Beneath the skies of summer sweet I linger where two pathways meet..."
- No. 4 - Chorus & Concerted Piece - "Here come the ladies who dazzle Society..."
- No. 5 - Song - Lady Virginia & Chorus - "I am favourably known as a high-class chaperone..."
- No. 6 - Concerted Piece, with Girls & Major - "To the barracks we have come..."
- No. 7 - Duett - Dr. Brierly & Rose - "Oh, my daughter, there's a creature known as man..."
- No. 8 - Trio - Lady Virginia, Sir Lewis & Dr. Brierly - "When once I get hold of a good-looking He..."
- No. 9 - Song - Dr. Brierly - "Little Jimmy was a scholar and his aptitude was such..." (five verses)
- No. 10 - Waltz
- No. 11 - Song - Goldfield - "Oh, we take him from the city or the plough..." (four verses)
- No. 12 - Finale Act I - "To my judicial mind there's not a doubt..."
ACT II - On the Riviera.
- No. 13 - Introduction and Opening Chorus - "Here on sunlit sands daintily we figure..."
- No. 14 - Concerted piece - "That ladies cannot bathe, if so they please, without encount'ring creatures such as these..."
- No. 15 - Trio - Rivers, Fitzwarren & Goldfield - "Buck up, buck up, old chappie!..."
- No. 16 - Song - Mina - "When your pride has had a tumble, and you've set your cap too high..."
- No. 17 - Trio - Sir Lewis, Dr. Brierly & Lady Virginia - "When in town you're safely landed, and the doctor far away..."
- No. 18 - Duet - Rivers & Rose - "Unlucky the morn on which I was born the youngest of several brothers..."
- No. 19 - Trio - Lady Edytha, Gladys & another - "We're awfully anxious to join in the fun..."
- No. 20 - Carnival Chorus - "Let folly reign supreme today, for carnival is holding sway..."
- No. 21 - Song - Rivers & Chorus - "Mesdames, messieurs, je suis Pierrot. (I'm nothing of the sort, you know...) "
- No. 22 - Song - Goldfield - "Sunshine above, and sunshine in my heart! Laughter and love hold carnival today..."
- No. 23 - Finale Act II - "I find it's really better far to keep my pranks for Bench and Bar..."
External links
- Midis, lyrics and cast list
- Profile of Owen, with a description of the preparation of A Gaiety Girl.
- Info from the comprehensive musicals 101 site
- www.gabrielleray.150m.com/ArchiveTextG/GaietyGirlNY1894.html Photographs and reviews of the New York production
- Information about London productions that opened in 1893