The Dollar Princess: History and Key Facts

The Dollar Princess is a musical in three acts, with music by Leo Fall, adapted into English by Basil Hood with lyrics by Adrian Ross (from the 1907 Die Dollarprinzessin with a German-language libretto by A. M. Willner and Fritz Grünbaum, after a comedy by Emerich von Gatti and Thilo Friedrich Wilhelm von Trotha). It opened in London at Daly's Theatre on 25 September 1909, running for 428 performances. The London production starred Lily Elsie, Joseph Coyne, W. H. Berry and Gabrielle Ray. The young Gladys Cooper played a small role.

It also had a very successful run on Broadway, with a new book and lyrics by George Grossmith, Jr. and additional numbers by Jerome Kern, opening on 6 August 1909 and running for 288 performances. Valli Valli, Adrienne Augarde and Louie Pounds starred in the New York production.

In late Victorian and Edwardian Britain, "dollar princess" was the nickname given to American heiresses. Playgoer and Society Illustrated wrote, "To the average playgoer there is something very attractive in watching the antics of the vulgar when surrounded by the refinement of art which he can neither understand nor appreciate.... Miss Lily Elsie, as Alice, shows even an improvement on her performance in The Merry Widow. The inimitable Mr. Joseph Coyne has put a lot more into his part than was possible on the first night.... He is great! His American accent is a thing to listen to...."

Source and attribution

Text excerpted from The Dollar Princess by Wikipedia contributors, available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. The extract is abridged and formatting has been adjusted; the adapted text on this page is shared under the same licence. Revision history.