Dear "Secret Garden" Fans,

Apart from having those famous "hazel eyes," what does Lily Craven usually look like onstage?

I can't remember what she was supposed to look like in the book "The Secret Garden".

I personally think that the musical's version of Lily might be freckled, but that she'd for certain have hazel eyes and sandy blonde/ brown hair, so that she would seem to remind one of a sunflower.

Thanks in advance for your replies.

In the production I saw, Lily was played by a dear friend of mine, who is extremely skinny, which worked for playing a ghost. Ordinarily, my friend has short black hair (or at least she did; I haven't sen her in a while), but when she played Lily, she wore an auburn wig which was positioned 'up'. It was a very good physical portrayal, which is much less than I can say for the Archibald...

I remember that our Lily was a dark blonde with hazel-brown eyes, and "a sunflower" was actually a good way to describe her.

The Lily I saw had brunette hair, dark eyes, and was fairly chubby (to put it politely).

Our Lily was very slim (our director described her as 'etherial' (sp?) )
She was extremely pretty, hazel eyes obv., and dark ringlets. She's not someone you can particularly describe, she just IS, if that makes sense.
Although she didn't look anythign like Rose who, although she is also dark haired, comes from Iran, does not have ringlets and is quite curvy (still slim, but she looked more solid than Lily)

"Ethereal", perhaps?

I wonder if hazel eyes plays a factor in casting "The Secret Garden..."

I'm sure brown would be fine, but I think that if it came down to a best Lily with blue eyes and the second best with hazel, I'd go with the best. I mean, how many people in the audience will really see her eye color on stage?

True - it would depend on the lighting designer, partially, too.

If the director was really picky then Lily could always wear contacts!

Taken from Chapter 13: "It was the picture of a girl with a laughing face. She had bright hair tied up with a blue ribbon and her gay, lovely eyes were exactly like Colin's unhappy ones, agate-grey and looking twice as big as they really were because of the black lashes all round them. ... 'She is much prettier than you,' she said, 'but her eyes are just like yours-at least they are the same shape and colour.'"

So looking at the description in the book, her eyes were actually gray, not hazel. (But yes, I do understand the musical is a work of it's own and it says hazel.) Honestly, as mentioned above, the eye color doesn't really matter, as it's not noticeable from the audience. I don't know what it means by "bright hair", nowadays that would mean dyed, but back then it could have been a light blonde or a red maybe? I'm not really sure.

The production I saw had her with brown hair, same as Mary's. Mary and Lily looked quite alike, which really worked well in "Lily's Eyes" because they had both Mary and Lily out there, posted the same, and the similarities really added to the song. If it matters, Mary is described as a blonde in the book.) In the book, however, Mary is said to be a very unattractive child, while Lily is definitely attractive. It also says (later, in chapter 15) that while Colin's eyes look exactly like Lily's, only sadder (to the point that Archibald cannot stand to look at him when he's awake), other than the eyes he looks very different from his mother.

Since the musical is not the book, and doesn't have the description of Mary being ugly, I'd say I like the idea of Lily and Mary looking alike. That would really add to the problems this causes for Archibald, as the more alike they look the more painful the dreams would be for him. But, of course, that's just my opinion, and not something in the script or a "commonly done" practice (that I know of).

Looking at pictures online, it would appear her hair is usually blonde or dark brown.