BRIGADOON Original Cast Member Virginia Bosler Passes Away at 93

Veteran actor and dancer, Virginia Doris, known professionally as Virginia Bosler passed away on August 30 at the age of 93.

Virginia made her Broadway debut as Jean MacLaren in the original cast of the Alan Jay Lerner-Frederick Lowe classic musical Brigadoon. She repeated this role in the 1954 film adaptation directed by Vincente Minnelli starring Gene Kelly as well as on tour and in several revivals.

A favorite dancer of Agnes De Mille, Virginia also performed in the 1955 film edition of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Shirley Jones as well as in the 1956 live television adaptation of Bloomer Girl starring Barbara Cook, both recreating de Mille's stage choreography.

Virginia's stage career began in 1946 with her first job at age nineteen in the national tour of the Harold Arlen-E.Y. Harburg musical Bloomer Girl starring Nannette Fabray and choreographed by Agnes De Mille.

She retired from the stage in 1963 after performing in other shows on Broadway, on tour, and in regional theatre across the country. In all she performed her signature role in Brigadoon well over a thousand times.

A second career as a professional dance notator trained in Labanotation, a method of transcribing dance and ballet choreography in print, followed from 1981 to 1991 for the Dance Notation Bureau; her work includes notated scores of works by George Balanchine, Agnes De Mille, and Eugene Loring.