Florodora

Florodora was one of the first successful Broadway musicals of the 20th century. Originally opened in London on November 11, 1899, it moved to New York in 1900 and ran for 552 performances. The book was written by Jimmy Davis under the pseudonym Owne Hall, music was by Leslie Stuart, and lyrics by Edward Boyd-Jones and Paul Rubens. A good deal of the success of the musical was attributed to the pulchritude of its sextet of chorines, called "the English Girls" in the score, but soon popularly dubbed the Florodora girls. (Note: as the memory of where the term comes from fades, this is more and more seen in the misspelled version "Floradora girls"). These six roles were filled by identically sized women, all 5'4" and 130 lbs, 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. The play was revived in 1902, 1905 and 1920.