The Blue Paradise is a musical in a prologue and two acts, with music by Edmund Eysler, Sigmund Romberg and Leo Edwards, lyrics primarily by Herbert Reynolds, and a book by Edgar Smith, based on the operettaEin Tag im Paradies by Eysler with original text by Leo Stein and Bela Jenbach. The story is set in a Viennese cafe, where a man realizes that he cannot recapture his long lost love. The musical premiered on Broadway in 1915 and enjoyed a successful run. It introduced the song “Auf Wiedersehn”, Romberg's first song hit, originally sung by 18-year-old Vivienne Segal in her professional debut. As in his other early works, Romberg's contributions to this musical are strongly nostalgic, with an emphasis on the waltz as a symbol of the past. The show also includes newer American dance music and embraces the movement towards stage realism.
Rudolph, a frequent customer at the Blue Paradise Inn in Vienna, is in love with Mizzi, a flower girl. He travels to America to operate one of his father's businesses. During the ensuing 24 years, Mizzi marries one of Rudolph's friends, and the couple has converted the inn into their private residence. After this period, when Rudolph returns to Vienna, and not knowing what has happened, he hopes to find Mizzi at the inn, to rekindle their love just as it had been so long ago, and to return to pre-war days. When he arrives at the inn, he sees that it looks just as he remembered it. He imagines that he has travelled back in time and embraces a woman who looks as Mizzi did in their youth. She turns out to be Mizzi's daughter, Gaby. Mizzi admits that she has arranged matters in this fashion so that Rudolph will accept reality; the past is the past. Gaby is engaged to Rudolph's nephew, Hans, and despite his sense of loss, Rudolph's is pleased for his nephew; the new generation will consummate the lost love of Rudolph's youth.
Roles and original cast
Mizzi, flower girl at the Blue Paradise Inn – Vivienne Segal
No. 10 - Gladys and Chorus - “Let me begin by saying where I am staying - I want it, and get it, so let it warn you”
No. 11 - Stoeger and Gladys - “Long ago I said I would never take a wife; I have no desire to spoil anybody’s life”
No. 12 - Walther and Gladys - “When I see a loving couple anywhere, I just want to go and whisper: Have a care”
No. 13 - Stoeger and Chorus - “Let me breathe the real Vienna air now; let me know that I am truly there now”
;Act II
No. 14 - Chorus - “Will someone please explain to us why we have been invited here, a private house”
No. 15 - Comedy Folk Song - Rudy, Hampel and Chorus - “Now Heiny had a little dog what didn’t have no teet’”
No. 16 - Folk Song and Yodle - Gladys - “I hear the cuckoo a-calling tonight: Oo-lay-eo, Oo-lay-eo”
No. 17 - Walther and Hazel, with Chorus - “I think you’re perfection, you're quite a model girl”
No. 18 - Waltz of the Season - Stoeger and Chorus - “Hark! Hark! Hark! What is it the orchestra’s playing?”
No. 19 - Rudolph - “Most ev’ry foreign nation has a style of song creation”
No. 20 - Stoeger and Gladys - “I’m dreaming of a wonderful night, night long ago”
No. 21 - Finale Act II - “If you’d be a happy man, you’d better win a pretty widow”
''Note: Items 2, 5, 6, 7, 10, 12, 14 & 17 were composed by Romberg, Items 4, 8, 9, 11, 13, 18, 20 & 21 were composed by Eysler; Items 3, 15 & 16 were composed by Leo Edwards; and Item 19 was written and composed by Cecil Lean.
