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My Mimosa Maid

Cover to original Vocal Score

A Riviera Musical Incident in 2 Acts. Chatter by Paul A Rubens and Austen Hurgon. Jungles and Tunes by Paul A Rubens.

Prince of Wales Theatre, London - 21 April, 1908 (83 perfs)

Story

Victor Guilbert, a chimney sweep, falls in love with the lovely Paulette, 'head girl on a Mimosa Plantation'. She falls in love with him but both are silent. Then Victor wins the gros lot in the big Riviera lottery. He gives up his job and decks himself out in fashionable finery to attempt to woo his Paulette under an assumed name and character. But he is unsuccessful, for she is still pining for the vanished sweep.

Emile Gerard , a café proprietor is Victor's rival for Paulette's affections. Meanwhile Max Guilbert, Victor's brother, "inherits" the sweeping business when Victor becomes 'Count Victor' becoming embroiled, to comic advantage with Popitte, a flower girl and Mme de Pilaine, the dowager proprietress of the Mimosa plantation.

Finally, however, Victor returns to his old ways and his real persona and he and Paulette are happily, and richly, united.

Cast and original players

Victor Guilbert - G. P. Huntley
Max Guilbert - George Barrett
Bock - Charles McNaughton
Boy - Archie McCaig
M. Emile Gerrard - Maurice Farkoa
Groue - Windham Guise
Captain Louis du Laurier - F. Pope Stamper
Lt Jean Courmandet - Harold A. Deacon
Lt Baptiste d'Eranger - Charles Hillman
Lt Raoul St André - H. F. R. Lightfoot
Boss - Cecil Burt
Cigarette Seller - Cecil Curtis
Popitte - Gracie Leigh
Mme de Pilaine - Eva Kelly
Granny - Joan Penrose
Marie - Clarisse Batchelor/Peggy Bethel
Antoinette - Genie Murray
Paulette - Isabel Jay

Musical Numbers

  1. Opening Chorus - "Merrily, merrily on we toil! Never a moment still..."
  2. Hammering Chorus - "Pack, pack-a-pack, that's our song; pack- pack-a-pack, all day long!..."
  3. Duet - Paulette and Gerard - "Ev'rything contrary seems, as in dreams..."
  4. Games - Dance
  5. Chorus of Girls - "Oh, Mister Sweep! Mister Sweep, how do you do, sir?..."
  6. Song - Paulette - "As the day dies away, then comes the moment for pleasure and play..."
  7. Whispering Quartet - "Can you keep a secret when to you it's told?..."
  8. Song - Louis and Chorus - "The men who defend the land we love are men both in word and deed..."
  9. Song - Gerard - "You're serious never, that I know quite well..."
  10. Duet - Bock and Boy - "If I should ever be rich, I'll be an original, too..."
  11. Song - Popitte and Chorus - "There once was a cobbler, a stolid fellow he..." (four verses)
  12. Finale Act I - "What is the matter with Paulette?..."
  13. The Sweep's Intermezzo
  14. Opening Chorus of Nurses and Soldiers - "We are little nurses; when a patient worse is you should act at once..."
  15. Solo and Chorus of Nurses - "When I first went as a hospital nurse..."
  16. Concerted Number - Louis with Twins and Nurses - "Of course, if you were children, as I took you both to be..."
  17. Madrigal - "Once a mister lov'd a sweet young miss..."
  18. Song - Popitte - "I've got a lot of relations, but they haven't been much use to me..." (four verses)
  19. Song - Paulette - "When all is gone to rest, each bird within his nest..."
  20. Song - Gerard - "Ever since I met you, not so many days, I could not forget you..." (four verses)
  21. Song - Paulette - "I am highly amused at this curious situation..."
  22. Concerted Number - Chorus - "Here, little girls, don't fear, little girls, we mean no harm!"
  23. Song with Men's Chorus (soloist unspecified) - "As the sun is sinking o'er the ssouthern sea..."
  24. Concerted Number - Popitte, Max, Bock, and Boy - "When for food you're pining..."
  25. Finale Act II - Paulette and Chorus - "Oh, Mister Sweep, I have loved you true all through, sir..."

Additional Numbers

  1. Song - Gerard and Girls - "When first I went to London, on the Tuppenny Tube I went!..."
  2. Mosquito Duet - Popitte and Bock - "When you go to bed, in your sleepy head you will find a big mosquito!..."

Scenes and Settings