Breezy BLOOMER GIRL a Worthy Revival for IWU Music Theatre Society

Although Bloomer Girl was revived in 2001 as part of New York's City Center Encores! series, it is not a show that gets produced very much. There are various theories advanced for that. Does it have too many characters and too difficult a costume plot -- with a parade of increasingly large and outlandish hoop skirts -- for regional theaters to stage? Or was it something to do with E. Y. "Yip" Harburg, the unapologetic leftist who wrote the lyrics to Harold Arlen's music for Bloomer Girl, since Harburg was blacklisted for his political views during the Hollywood witchhunt of the 50s and early 60s?

Scott Susong, who directed Bloomer Girl last weekend as a staged concert reading for Illinois Wesleyan University's Music Theatre Society, wanted to revive Bloomer Girl because he felt its messages of equality -- both gender and racial equality -- were as fresh and important as ever.

Those views are certainly on display in Bloomer Girl, which involves a young woman named Evalina Applegate, who is the youngest daughter of a prosperous Yankee hoop-skirt manufacturer at a time just before America's Civil War. Our heroine resists both the marriage her father has planned for her, to a handsome slave-owner from Kentucky, and the hoops Dad is peddling. Evalina isn't sure about marriage at all, but especially not to someone who owns a slave, plus she prefers the more practical bloomers (i.e., pants) championed by her suffragette Aunt Dolly in the feminist newspaper she puts out.

That sets up three different conflicts: Skirts vs. Pants, Women's Rights vs. Being Controlled by Dad, and Abolition vs. Slavery. You will note that all three issues center on freedom. The fact that this is all played as a musical comedy, complete with a second-act show-within-the-show version of Uncle Tom's Cabin, probably seems strange to 21st century audiences.

The sprightly tone of Bloomer Girl is sometimes at odds with its serious message, and the Arlen/Harburg score doesn't contain anything as memorable as "Over the Rainbow" or "Stormy Weather," other Arlen tunes. Still, it's a sweet little show with its heart in the right place, and it deserves to be taken off the "forgotten musicals" list and put back into repertory by theaters who can pull out all the stops with those outrageous hoop skirts.

For IWU, director Scott Susong worked with limited choreography (no extended Civil War Ballet) and simple accompaniment (apparently the full orchestrations were lost/gone/not available, so Susong had to go with what he could pull together for piano and percussion) as well as stripped-down costumes (with hoops over leotards and a whole lot of plaid bloomers). For this kind of concert setting, that all worked well, but it would be fun to see the real, full-blown version.

Heather Priedhorsky made a lovely and spirited Evalina in this concert staging, while Jordan Lipes was quite charming as her Southern beau, Jefferson Calhoun. I also enjoyed Chloe Bluml and Josh Levinson as Mom and Dad Applegate, Erica Werner as pesky Aunt Dolly, Reggie Cooke as Pompey, the escaped slave, and Patsita Jiratipayabood as Daisy, a housemaid with decided opinions on women and love.

Other standouts included Natalie Howard, Halimah Nurullah, Ian Stewart and Kayla White, who combined with Cooke to bring energy and life to "I Got a Song," a folksy second-act anthem to freedom that brought home the show's themes.

BLOOMER GIRL
Music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by E.Y. Harburg, and book by Sig Herzig and Fred Saidy.

IWU Music Theatre Society
Young Main Lounge in the Memorial Building

Director: Scott Susong
Musical Director: Michelle Brecunier
Choreographer: Sheri Marley
Accompanist: Charles Berggren
Assistant Producer/Assistant Director: Anna Klemperer
Assistant Music Director: Chloe Bluml
Assistant Accompanist: Megan Win
Assistant Choreographer: Josh Levinson
Costumers: Rosalie Alspach, Elizabeth Albers and Patsita Jiratipayabood
Hair/Make Up: Erica Werner
Sound: Joey Chu
Stage Manager/Properties: Cathy Coburn

Cast: Elizabeth Albers, Rosalie Alspach, Kelsey Bearman, Chloe Bluml, Julia Cicchino, Reggie Cooke, Steven Czajkowski, Bucky Emmerling, Evan Dolan, Emily Hanlet, Lydia Hartlaub, Natalie Howard, Patsita Jiratipayabood, Annie Kehler, Josh Levinson, Jordan Lipes, Forrest Loeffler, Chris Long, Carlos Medina, Halimah Nurullah, Heather Priedhorsky, Ian Stewart, Alec Sutton, Kelsey Vonder Haar, Caroline Wagner, Erica Werner, Kayla White and Megan Win.

Performances took place January 19 and 20, 2013.

I've Been Waiting for BLOOMER GIRL!

I absolutely love that Illinois Wesleyan University's Music Theatre Society puts on a lesser-known, eminently revivable piece of musical theatre every year. Instead of the same old, same old, the Music Theatre Society goes for neglected gems like Big and Do Re Mi.

This year, it's Bloomer Girl, a fizzy and spirited Broadway musical from 1944 that tackles freedom and repression. IWU's Bloomer Girl, directed by Associate Professor Scott Susong, is scheduled for two performances in the Young Main Lounge in the Memorial Building on the Illinois Wesleyan Campus this weekend, with an 8 pm curtain on Saturday, January 19, and a 2 pm matinee on Sunday, January 20.

So what makes Bloomer Girl worth a visit?

Well, if I said "Over the Rainbow," "Stormy Weather," "That Old Black Magic," "Come Rain or Come Shine," "I've Got the World on a String," "One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)," "It's Only a Paper Moon," "The Man That Got Away" and "Get Happy," what name would come to mind first? Maybe Judy Garland, since she was associated with at least three of those songs. But they're all the work of composer Harold Arlen, who wrote some of the best melodies ever in popular music. There is simply nothing like an Arlen tune.

Many of the songs listed above also featured lyrics by E.Y. "Yip" Harburg. That's who Arlen worked with on the score for The Wizard of Oz as well as Bloomer Girl. The Arlen/Harburg songs from Bloomer Girl aren't as well known as "Over the Rainbow" or "If I Only Had a Brain," but they're still terrific, from the comic feminist anthem "It Was Good Enough for Grandma," to the love song "Right as Rain," and "Evalina,*" which Bing Crosby turned into a Top Ten single.

The book for Bloomer Girl was written by Sig Herzig and Fred Saidy, based on an unpublished play by Lilith and Dan James. It's set in Upstate New York during the American Civil War, with issues of emancipation front and center for several characters.

Or, as Illinois Wesleyan's press release puts its: "The plot centers around independent Evalina Applegate, an 1861 hoop skirt manufacturer's youngest daughter who defies her father by rejecting hoopskirts and embracing comfortable bloomers advocated by her aunt Dolly Bloomer. The American Civil War is looming, and abolitionist Evalina refuses to marry suitor Jefferson Calhoun until he frees his slave. The heart of the piece is the exploration of hopes and dreams within working class society and the intersection of equality for both women and African Americans in Nineteenth Century."

Bloomer Girl began on Broadway with Celeste Holm as Evalina, the girl who wants to give up her hoop skirts to wear trousers, and then came back for a short stint in 1947 with Nanette Fabray.  There was even a shortened 1956 TV version with the fabulous Barbara Cook in the role. Since then, there haven't been a whole lot of revivals of Bloomer Girl -- some speculate that's because of the show's rather complicated costume requirements -- but it did get picked up for an Off-Broadway production in 2000 and a City Center Encores! staging in 2001, with Kate Jennings Grant as the Bloomer Girl, Kathleen Chalfant as her aunt Dolly Bloomer, and Philip Bosco as mean old Dad.

Heather Priedhorsky will play Evalina Applegate for IWU, with Jordan Lipes as her potential beau Jeff Calhoun, who hails from Kentucky; Reggie Cook as Pompey, a slave hoping to be freed; Erica Werner as Aunt Dolly, the big bloomers proponent; Josh Levinson as Horace Applegate, Evalina's dad and a major hoop manufacturer; and Patsita Jiratipayabood as Daisy, an amourous maid. Others in the cast include Chloe Bluml, Carlos Medina, Forrest Loeffler, Kelsey Bearman, Alec Sutton, Kelsey Vonder Haar, Steven Czajkowski, Emilie Hanlet, Chris Long, Caroline Wagner, Bucky Emmerling, Rosalie Alspach, Evan Dolan, Halimah Nurullah, Natalie Howard, Ian Stewart, Kayla White, Megan Win, Elizabeth Albers, Anne Kehler, Julia Cicchino and Lydia Hartlaub.

You can check out Bloomer Girl free of charge at 8 pm on Saturday, January 19, or 2 pm on Sunday, January 20, in the Young Main Lounge in the Memorial Building on the Illinois Wesleyan Campus.

*There seems to be some confusion whether the name is "Evalina" or "Evelina" -- it's Evalina at the Internet Broadway Database and in IWU's press release, but Bing's single seems to have been "Evelina," Barbara Cook's character is listed as Evelina at the Internet Movie Database, and the venerable New York Times went with Evelina when it reviewed the Encores! production. Still, I decided to hang with the IBDB and IWU on this one.