The Cherry Girl


The Cherry Girl was an Edwardian musical comedy in two acts based on a book by Seymour Hicks with lyrics by Aubrey Hopwood and music by Ivan Caryll. It opened at the Vaudeville Theatre in London's West End on 21 December 1903. The original cast included Hicks, Constance Hyem, Courtice Pounds and Hicks's wife, Ellaline Terriss. From August 1904, the play went on tour to the Theatre Royal in Glasgow and other British provincial theatres. The play was described as a "children's fairy play", and its story involves a prize to be given by a Fairy Queen for the creation of a statue.

Roles and original cast

The original London cast was as follows:
Act 1
Act 2
The scenes for both acts are as follows:
Act 1 – Once Upon a Time
Act 2 – 100 Years Ago
Reviewing the first performance, The Manchester Guardian gave this summary of the plot:

Musical numbers

;Act I
;Act II
Following its 100th performance in March 1904, several new songs were introduced:
The Times thought that dramatically the first act was a success, but was much less impressed by the second, though it had "all sorts of pretty, clever and funny things in it." Caryll's music was judged "tuneful enough, but very thin", and too reminiscent of the composer's earlier scores. The paper's anonymous reviewer thought "Bubble Land" the best musical number. The Manchester Guardian commented:

Recordings

No recordings were released by the original cast. A list of releases by other artists is given below – it includes title, singer, record company and release date :