by Paddy Stone and starred Patricia Routledge, Terence Cooper, Bernard Cribbins and Ed Bishop. It opened on May 17, 1962 at the Comedy Theatre but was compared unfavourably with The Boy Friend and closed after only 42 performances. Critics of this musical have objected that it stereotypes and demeans Native Americans. Characters Captain "Big Jim" Warington, handsome Captain of the Forest Rangers: baritone - Primarily, Jim represents Rose-Maries Jim Kenyon, although he gets his Ranger (Mountie) uniform from Sergeant Malone. (In fact, in spite of his rank, in some productions he wears sergeant's stripes). Generically, Jim also represents other operetta leaders of men (and singers of rallying songs) such as François Villon, leader of the Paris rabble in The Vagabond King ("Song of the Vagabonds"); Robert Misson, leader of the New Orleans antiroyalty men in The New Moon ("Stout-hearted Men); and the Red Shadow, leader of the Riffs in The Desert Song ("The Riff Song"). "Little Mary Sunshine" (Mary Potts), proprietress of the Colorado Inn: soprano (called "Little Merry Sunshine" by the Kadotas) - Mary is primarily a caricature of Rose-Marie's Rose-Marie La Flamme, but also generically represents operetta heroines, the sweethearts of the leaders of men. In the London production, Patricia Routledge, who had an ample figure, brought out aspects of Mary's role linking her with "Little Buttercup" from HMS Pinafore. In practice, to emphasize the humor, Mary is usually played by a character actress rather than a conventional "leading lady". Madame Ernestine von Liebedich, an elderly opera singer: contralto - Ernestine resembles Sarah Millick, heroine of Coward's Bitter Sweet, and like her prototype has "sweet memories" of Vienna that "across the years . . . come to" her—words from the song "I'll See You Again". The name Liebedich recalls Edvard Grieg's composition "Ich Liebe Dich" ("I Love You"). Her name also resembles that of opera singer Ernestine Schumann-Heink, on whom she may be partially based. Corporal "Billy" Jester, a Forest Ranger: tenor or high baritone - Billy and his girlfriend Nancy, the show's comedic bickering lovers, closely resemble Ado Annie and Will Parker from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!. Nancy Twinkle, the show's soubrette - Like Ado Annie, Nancy loves her man, yet is perhaps even fonder of men in general. Chief Brown Bear, chief of the Kadota (anagram of Dakota) Indians - Brown Bear is based on Chief Sitting Bull, from Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun. Both