The Royal Aquarium

In Florodora, the comic character Professor Tweedlepunch repeatedly introduces himself as being a Phrenologist "from the Royal Aquarium, London". Originally we had thought that this was a simple humorous non sequitur. Why in the world would a phrenologist be from an aquarium? So, we had originally thought it was like saying you were a snowplow driver from Tahiti.

BUT, it turns out that the Royal Aquarium was an actual place in Victorian London, designed as an aquarium in 1876, but never (almost) used as such. Originally having tanks and an elaborate system of pipes and many other multi-purpose rooms, almost immediately it ran into operating difficulties, but did once manage to display a dead whale.

By the 1890s, the Aquarium had acquired a risqué reputation, with unaccompanied ladies promenading through the hall in search of male companionship. It contained a legit theater which was mostly used as a music hall and for circus and other exotic entertainments. A natural place for a dubious sham phrenologist-cum-detective to claim to hail from, isn't it?

There are two other interesting Savoy Opera connections: The Royal Aquarium included a theater, the aptly named Aquarium Theatre. It had an unusually large Grand Organ whose installation and construction in 1877 was supervised by none other than Arthur Sullivan. In its opening year, one of the plays produced was an adaptation of Great Expectations by W. S. Gilbert.

Still in existence when Florodora was written in 1899, The Royal Aquarium was demolished in 1903, though the Aquarium Theatre stood until 1907. It is immortalized in Florodora. You can read all about it on Wikipedia.

Florodora Girl as The Ideal

The image and allure of the Florodora Girl replaced the Gibson Girl as the feminine ideal in the early years of the 20th century. Here is an illustration by Hamilton King of a Florodora Girl (1902) which was distributed by Turkish Trophies Cigarettes:

Hamilton King would soon draw the famous Coca-Cola Girl (left) advertising image, and in June 1920 King drew this gorgeous Theatre Magazine cover portrait of Marion Davies (right), who was later the producer and star of the 1930 movie The Florodora Girl (see below).

To this day, the Society of Illustrators annually awards their Hamilton King award for excellence.

And Happy New Year

Best wishes for a healthy and music-filled 2009, everybody.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to one and all. I hope everyone is enjoying a happy and safe holiday. I hope Santa was good to all you good boys and girls out there. Among the battery operated toys and wrapping paper I received a few great musical prezzies:

• Vocal score of a concert version of Edward German's Merrie England
• Vocal score of a concert version of Montague Phillips operetta The Rebel Maid (1921)
• A bound library vocal score of The Gondoliers to replace my very used Schirmer copy
• The 2-CD set of the Bognor Regis (UK) Music Society's June 2008 concert of Sidney Jones' 1898 operetta/musical comedy A Greek Slave (wow!)
• A DVD of the BBC docu-drama on the life of the Edwardian music hall queen Marie Lloyd

Florodora Production Details

The details have been finally worked out and I can tell you that Florodora will be presented August 1st and 2nd 2009 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts downtown on Castro Street in the SecondStage theater space. I will be stage directing and Neil Midkiff will be Music Director. As a celebration of reaching the 10th Discovery show, Florodora will be presented with a new orchestration accompanied by the Lyric Theatre Salon Orchestra.

We are working on a Discovery performing edition, with a new modern vocal score and orchestra parts based on the original score and parts with matching midi files. We are working hard to get the performing materials finished so we can cast Florodora as early as possible - and especially so cast members can start to learn the music well in advance.

We'll begin rehearsals approx June 29th with a full week of music rehearsals. Because of the addition of the orchestra, we've scheduled the luxury of an extra full week of rehearsals AND there will also bean in-venue dress rehearsal on the evening of Friday July 31st - as well as orchestra rehearsals and a sitzprobe in the Lyric warehouse.

Florodora will be a lot of fun and, naturally, the Greatest Show Ever.

Audition dates and other details soon. Watch this space!

Florodora Book Is Really Funny

Neil Midkiff and I have been editing a performing edition of the Florodora libretto. The dialog is very, very funny and chocked full of jokes and good puns. We are mergeing the best from two similar sources, a printed libretto from an English revival (date unknown) and somewhat Americanized version which seems a bit earlier.

Most of the English characters are funny, led forcefully by the Lady Holyrood character who has some of the best jokes involving marriage and other social commentary.

Librettist Owen Hall (James Davis) really did a good job with this one!

What Became of the Florodora BOYS?

I'm hoping a lot of people will want to be able to boast of joining the famous theatrical ranks Florodora Girls and Florodora Boys.

Speaking of Florodora Boys, this scene from a very early comedy-variety talkie in 1929 speculated of the fate of the original 6 Florodora Boys - the actors who played The Clerks who are the love interests for the Florodora Girls. The original actresses all left the show and married millionaires. But what ever happened to the boys???

"The Show of Shows" features early comedy films stars Heine Conklin, Lupino Lane, Bert Roach, Ben Turpin, and Lloyd Hamilton as Messrs Sims, Pym, Apfelbaum, Haskell, Grogan and Scott. There's an amusing but longish introduction to get past. The number - a take-off on Tell me Pretty Maiden - begins about a minute-and-a-half into the clip. Note the Florodora Girl line cakewalk blocking strongly resembles the entrance step in the clip from the Florodora Girl movie (see previous posting).



(In real life, one of the Florodora boys in an early revival was Milton Berle. He did quite well).

Vamping Until Sunday...

I hope to get the greenlight from the Lyric PTBs at Sunday's BoD meeting and then share all the exciting details. Any and all moral support for the BoD meeting gleefully accepted. The Board needs to vote on the budget, venue and artistic staff. I promise, then, that all will be revealed.

In the meantime, work is being done on the score and the libretto. The plan is to have a brand new much improved Florodora vocal score and matching midi files in people's hands as early as possible.

It all sounds bright and fun and will be a hoot to perform.