sMT 9 (1) pp. 13-30 lntellect Limited 2015 Studies in Musical Theatre Volume 9 Number r o zor5 lntellect Ltd Article. English language. doi: ro r386/smt.9.1.13_1 MAYA CANTU Mint Theater Company 'Clothes make an awful difference in a girl': ,'.-j.rii: ltrtii:r l{l iLrl.}'.tOr1 vilur -: ; ,,r i c,r rl'",,n,r,!!rl;-1,.,.i MIIe. Modiste, Irene and : : itlai ir! yilrji na::\i""' bt-rOii -. r i-]li i il.ii ;.ttcpllal. pit-ll:ttt ::.., ;--icad a cue:lrJnnaire Funny Face as Cinderella '--:. r I r'r',vi,;.i nt.il':ciiioDk5.ao$) fashion musicals ABSTRACT KEYWORDS The world of fashion has been a frequent setting for the many Broadznay musi- Cinderella cals inspired by Charles Perrault's Cindcrella (1697). Using futo Broadway fashion musicals and one Hollywood musical as cross-historical case studies, this article femininity examines hun the American musicnl has aaiously adapted and interpreted themes sclf-invention of 'clothes make the u)oman' Iry posing Cinderella as a shop girl or model in fields of American dream consumer fashion. The 1905 Victor llerbert/Ilenry Bllssom operetta Mlle. Modiste, MIle. Modiste and the 1919 Chderella musical Ilene (by James Montgomery, Harry Tiemey Irene and Joseph McCarthy) both assert the democratizing pozoer of fashiott. In M1le. Funny Face Modistc', the resourceful title character uses both her singing talent and her access -.. :r;::i.t; :tni1;i}ji rral; vrsii to stylish clothing to rise in the world as an opera diua, as well as a oiscount's wrfe. w ww. i r':tel leetb*eks"q*ril Irene emphasizes themes of masquerade and meritocracy, as the eponymous lrish American shop giil models dresses for coutuier 'Madame Lucy', fools high soci- - , ,,.:i. iirl r."1tii, l).ureij iii-:arj ety as a pedigreed lady and marries her Prince Charming. By contrast, the 1957 . , ,,1,,.,1 l. ,. Paramount mooie musical Funny Face problematizes its heroine's fashion-world makeuter. IMiIe Frnny Face's narratiae depicts the transformation of Jo Stockton -: , t,:::) lr7 g5ijqqla : -. .., ;i,rl itlr)tljilitil 13 Maya Cantu (Audrey Hepburn), abookish'GreenwichVillage Cinderella', into a glamorous Paris top Paris model. mannequin, Funny Face's musical numbers, use strategies of camp and parody to and alienation e: undercut the concept of 'The Quality Woman'. well as its under MLLE. MODIS? From nineteenth the century through the present day, Charles Pcrrault's With music by'' Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper (1697) has inspired dozens of Broadway operetta Mlle. L1 musical adaptations as the female rags-to-riches definitive tale. Using strate- fashion musicalr ges of adaptation that predominantly treat Cinderella as a model translatable ionable Austria; to American settings and contexts, rather literal than adaptations of the fairy Opening on 25 I tale, paradigm' (Flecht 2011:104) has appeared this'Cinderella in such classic 202 performancr musical adaptations as Annie Get Your Gun (1946), Lady (1956) My Fair and Town and Couttt Hairspray as well as more traditional examples, such as Rodgers and Q002), sivcly' (Anon. 1' Hammerstein' s (1 95 7) the Wo o (1 (which Cinder ella and Sondh cim's k to ds 986) Dillingham's lav drew from the darker 'Aschenputtel' of the Brothers Grimm). The Cinderella 'trimmed with r: narrative, intersecting focus class, social gender, with its on mobility and MIIe. Modist, has Broadway becn particularly suited to the musical - at once, a populist musical comedii genre and a feminine form centralizing'visually and aurally dominant' (Wolf class settings c 2002:22) female characters and performers. burgeoning indr While Broadway musical has adapted seemingly endless the varia- for both 1894's tions of the Cinderella story the world of fashion can be counted among and Stowell 199 its most frequent adaptive settings, changing the tale heroine a fairy into culminated wiih shop model, for girl or whom clothing - mirroring the magical bejewelled portrayed its tit silver and gold gown (Perrault 1988: 18) of the original fairy 116971 tale - successfully purr functions as a means of her transformation and asccnt. Fashion has tradi- of American mi tionally conjured elite connotations, as the haute couture province the of mixture of an C aristocrary. American In contrast, the musical - as a genre of democratic Modiste's)humc myth-making has portrayed - consumer fashion as a modern urban vchi- setting' (Anon.- These cle of self-expression. musicals evoke the themes of self-invention in MIIe. Modist' ideas 'clothes Horatio Alger's novels: transposing of make the man' onto rious shopping predominantly female protagonists. Influenced by thc earlicr British Gaiety (including the o musicals, Broadway's Cinderella fashion musicals proliferated in the first six modem fairy ta1 decades dialogue of the twentieth century in with the assimilation of first- millinery shop. and second-generation Americans (among immigrant groups). Jewish other Cecile hopes to For these immigrant Jews - many of whom worked in the famous Garment working in the r District of New York's Lower East Side fashion served as the means of - are portrayed as 'playng the part right' (Hecht 2011:58). the same time, these musicals At Reflecting P evoked the professional and romantic conflicts of women in the work forcc, of Perrault's Cir shop giris Cinderella musical of whom the of the served as models and Ceciie's hat shol reflections. icon of the sho MIIe. Modiste (1905),Irate (1919) and the Paramount movie musicalFunny source of labour (1957) Face can be considered exemplary among fashion-themcd Cinderella respectabilit/ (I musicals. echo obscrvation lrene's character, \^/hile all three the of title of female shop 'Clothes make an awful difference in a girl' (McCarthy aI. 1919:1: 23), the et ihe shop with tl three musicals vary in their adaptive strategies, contexts and interpretations. Blending Perrault's tale with the Horatio Alger narrative, the operctta MlIe. Furs and fea Modiste depicts the Americanization of its French shop girl hcroine through a ..-. Hard *'c self-made fairy godfather. In contrast, Irene, a modem fable of American meri- Ten hours e' tocracy, rcimagines Cinderella as a shop girl tumed fashion mannequin, while modelling its own sartorial fairy godmother, Madame Lury after the real-life couturier Lucile, Lady Duff-Gordon. Finally, Funny Face rccounts the transfor- Unfulfilled n'ith mation of 'Greenwich Village Cinderella' Jo Stockton (Audrey Hepbum) into a a famous opera 'Clothes make an awf uldifference in a girl' :'t a Slamorous Paris top Paris model. At the same time, the musical uscs self-reflexive camp tactics 1 The American Progressive era, :in\) and parody to as 'The Woman', as and alienation effects to undercut Jo's makeover Quality which spanned from well as its underlying basis in the feminine mystique. the 1890s through to the end of World War l, encompassed MLLE. MODISTE: THE'ALGERIZATION'OF THE CINDERELLA STORY large sca{e ref orms rn Charles Perrault's labou r and workers' With music by Victor Herbert, and book and lyrics by Henry Blossom, the riBhts, government, ozens Broadway of operetta MIIe. Modiste can be considered among the carlicst of the Cinderella finance, education ; and public heaith, as iale. Using strate- fashion musicais, as set in a 1905 Parisian millinery and starring the fash- model translatable well as the rncreasing ionable Austrian-bom opcra diva Fritzi Scheff as ambitious shop girl Fifi. acccptance of women's of the fairy 'iations Opening on 25 December 1905 at the Knickerbocker Thcatre, where it ran for suffrage (culminating ared in the passage of in such classic 202 performances, MIIe. Modiste produced hit songs such as 'Kiss Me Again'. iir Indy (1956) and the Nineteenth Town and Country praiscd a book that 'treated the whole story comprehcn- Amendment rn 1919) rch as Rodgcrs and sivcly' (Anon.1906: 21), whlle The Chicago Daily Tribune compared Charlcs (1986) (which ,iods Dillingham's lavish production of the musical to artfully assembled millinery rn). The Cindcrella 'trimmed with rare taste and skill' (Hubbard 1905: B). )bility and gender, MIIe. Modiste also followed in the British tradition of George Edwardes' once, populist lt a musical comedics, which transposed Cinderclla stories onto modem middle- lv dominant' QVolf class settings of leisure and commerce (particularly drawing upon the burgeoning industry of the department store, which provided the settings qiv endless varia- for both 1.894's The Shop GirI and 1906's The Girl Behind the Counter; Kaplan :e counted among and Stowell 1994:103). Yet whereas the plots of the Edwardes shows usually :ale heroine into a culminated with the heroine's engagement to a young aristocrat, MIIe. Modiste nagical bejewelled portrayed its title shop girl both marrying a young French nobleman and rriginal fairy tale - successfuily pursuing an operatic career, after the serendipitous intervention Fashion has tradi- of American millionaire Hiram Bent. Town and Country noted thc musical's province re of the mixture of an Old World operetta milieu and New World sensiblltty:'(MIIe. :nre democratic of Modiste's) humor is thoroughly American, but somehow suits well the Parisian odem urban vehi- setting' (Alon. 1 906: 21). rf self-invention in MIIe. Modiste unfolds in the fashion district of the Rue de la Paix: a luxu- rke the man' onto rious shopping destination knorvn for its jewellery stores and fashion salons British r'ier Gaiety (including the originai 1858 couture house of Charles Frederick Worth). The ated six in the first modern fairy tale follows Fifi, the most cfficient hat-seller at Madame Cecilc's ;similation of first- millinery shop. As counterpart to Cinderella's wicked stepmother, Madame mmigrant groups). Cecile hopes to marry Fifi off to her wastrcl son Gaston, in order to keep Fifi .