Additional numbers by Adrian Ross and Lionel Monckton
Opened at the Gaiety Theatre, London, 24 November 1894, and played for 546 performances.
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The Shop Girl, the first of the new "musical comedies, was a huge success. The critics were somewhat amazed that the author had provided quite a coherent story, for there had been no story at all in burlesque. The Shop Girl plot concerned a good-hearted millionaire who, rich beyond the dreams of avarice himself, had come back to London to look for the daughter of his chum of the mining camps, to whom a fortune of the quite respectable sum of four million pounds was due. The millionaire, in full evening dress, with a cape lined with scarlet, sang about how he had gone out in the steerage of a liner, to become a miner, and how he had struck it rich in Colorado. The daughter was Bessie Brent, the shop girl, who had already given her hand and heart to Charles Appleby, a gay but impecunious young medical student of good family. It all works out in the end, of course, with Bessie marrying Charles and everyone has had a grand time.
The Music — Full sets of MIDI and MIDI Karaoke files, and historical recordings in MP3 format.
Enter Musical Comedy, an article on The Shop Girl from the book Gaiety: Theatre of Enchantment, by W. Macqueen Pope. Includes original production cast list.
Page created 30 October 2004