The Sunshine Girl: History and Key Facts

The Sunshine Girl is an Edwardian musical comedy in two acts with a book by Paul A. Rubens and Cecil Raleigh, music and lyrics by Rubens and additional lyrics by Arthur Wimperis. The story involves a working girl who falls in love with the heir to the factory. He is in disguise and wants to be loved for himself, not his position, so he gets his friend to pose as the heir, leading to complications for both men.

The musical was first produced by George Edwardes at the Gaiety Theatre in London, opening on February 24, 1912, and running for 336 performances. It starred George Grossmith, Jr. as Lord Bicester, Edmund Payne as Floot and Phyllis Dare as Delia Dale. It also had a Broadway run in 1913 at the Knickerbocker Theatre starring Grossmith's in-law, Vernon Castle.

Port Sunlight is the real life suburb on which the setting of the musical is based. The show introduced the tango to British audiences.

Source and attribution

Text excerpted from The Sunshine Girl 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.