Apple Blossoms

Apple Blossoms (1919), an operetta by William Le Baron (book, lyrics), Victor Jacobi, Fritz Kreisler (music). [Globe Theatre, 256 perf.] Nancy Dodge (Wilda Bennett) thinks she loves Dickie Stewart (Percival Knight), while Philip Campbell (John Charles Thomas) is sure he loves Anne Merton (Florence Shirley). But when Nancy and Philip are pressed into marriage by their families, they agree to wed with the understanding that after the marriage each is free to go his or her own way. They soon resume their old flirtations only to find at a masked ball that they have come to love each other. Dickie and Anne, old flames, also decide to marry. Notable songs: Little Girls, Goodbye; Who Can Tell?; You Are Free. The Charles Dillingham production is mostly remembered because it gave a handsome leg up to the careers of its chief dancers, Fred and Adele Astaire. Much of the music by Kreisler, the renowned violinist, was later used in his 1932 Viennese operetta Sissy, while his melody for “Who Can Tell?” was given yet a third set of lyrics in 1936 and became popular as “Stars in Your Eyes.”