Thomas Augustine Barrett (1863-1928) has been called one of the most gifted composers of musical comedy on the British stage. His early hits, written for the music hall, included ‘Lily of Laguna’ and ‘Soldiers of the King’.
Stuart’s first West End musical comedy, which became an international success, was Florodora (1899), and it had two quite different impacts on MGM musicals. Firstly, the show formed the background for The Florodora Girl, a fictional story about one of the original Broadway chorus girls. A song from the show, ‘Tell Me Pretty Maiden,’ features at the climax of the film.
Decades later, Florodora, misnamed Florodora Girl, is one of the many no-longer-relevant New York sights featured in Chip’s out-of-date guidebook in On the Town and mentioned in ‘Come Up to My Place’.
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