Bloomer Girl (1944) musical ?

[bigbelterbaby]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 6:50am

.
would a revival of Bloomer Girl work on Broadway? it was a successful show in the 40s and the lead role of Evelina is what made Celeste Holm a star (along with Oklahoma as Ado Annie, she would soon win an Oscar in 1947 for Gentleman's Agreement)

I was just listening to the Bloomer Girl score and it's quite lovely, yes old-fashioned, but still entertaining. There have been old-fashioned musicals revived like "The Pajama Game".

Has anyone ever seen a production of it, or been in one ?
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Celeste Holm singing

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 9:32am

There was a production at Goodspeed in the 1980s. It's a gorgeous score but the book is not as compelling.

Barbara Cook starred in a TV production in 1956. Here are highlights from it:





Barbara Cook Bloomer Girl

Updated On: 1/31/15 at 09:32 AM

[yfs]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 9:54am

Encores also did it back in about 2000.

It's got a very progressive outlook and a good score, but I can't imagine it being appealing to a general audience any more. If Finian's Rainbow, which is superior, couldn't find a crowd even with great reviews, Bloomer Girl certainly wouldn't.

[bigbelterbaby]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 10:06am

probably, it's just too bad that even Finian's Rainbow is well known, while I don't think casual musical theatre people are even familiar with Bloomer Girl.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 12:25pm

A kinescope of the TV verson is available. The beauttiful Civil War Baller which DeMille did, used to be online but I can't find it on youtube....

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 1:03pm

Yeah, I know. All I found was that compilation of Barbara Cook's musical numbers.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 7:27pm

And the Barbara Cook clips are a treasure in and of themselves, joey. Thank you very much!