Bloomer Girl

Bloomer Girl
1944 Original Cast Recording
Music	Harold Arlen
Lyrics	E.Y. Harburg
Book	Sig Herzig and Fred Saidy
Basis	unpublished play by Lilith and Dan James
Productions	1944 Broadway

Bloomer Girl is a 1944 Broadway musical with music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by E.Y. Harburg, and a book by Sig Herzig and Fred Saidy, based on an unpublished play by Lilith and Dan James. The plot concerns independent Evelina Applegate, a hoop skirt manufacturer's daughter who defies her father by rejecting hoopskirts and embracing comfortable bloomers advocated by her aunt "Dolly" Bloomer. The American Civil War is looming, and abolitionist Evelina refuses to marry suitor Jeff Calhoun until he frees his slave, Pompey.

A television version of the musical was shown in 1956.

The original Broadway production opened at the Shubert Theatre on October 5, 1944, directed by William Schorr and produced by John C. Wilson in association with Nat Goldstone.Agnes de Mille was the choreographer, and her contributions included a Civil War ballet. The production starred Celeste Holm as Evelina, David Brooks as Jeff Calhoun, Dooley Wilson as the slave Pompey, and Joan McCracken in the featured dancing role as Daisy. While successful -- it closed on April 27, 1946 after 657 performances on Broadway -- it has seldom been revived.

Alisa Roost directed an Off-Broadway revival, which recreated Agnes deMille's original dream ballet, at the Theatre at St. Clements in 2000 and New York City Center's Encores! staged concert series performed it for a week in 2001.

Bloomer Girl caused a temporary rift between de Mille and Jerome Robbins when, about a year into the show's run, Robbins appropriated several dancers then in the chorus, including James Mitchell and Arthur Partington, for Billion Dollar Baby (1945).