''A Trip to Chinatown'' is a

musical comedy Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement ...

in three acts by Charles H. Hoyt with music by Percy Gaunt and lyrics by Hoyt. In addition to the Gaunt and Hoyt score, many songs were interpolated into the score at one time or another during the run, as was fashionable for musicals of the era. The story concerns a widow who accidentally maneuvers several young suburban couples into a big city restaurant and brings romance to them and herself, as in '' Hello, Dolly!'' After almost a year of touring, the musical opened at

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

’s Madison Square Theater on November 9, 1891, and ran for 657 performances, or just short of two years. This was the longest-running Broadway musical in history up to that time (although London had seen a few longer runs), and it held that record until '' Irene'' in 1919. The show was such a hit that several road companies played it throughout the country simultaneously with the Broadway production, and at one point a second company was even opened in New York while the original company was still performing on Broadway. The cast included

Trixie Friganza Trixie Friganza (born Delia O'Callaghan; November 29, 1870February 27, 1955) was an American actress. She began her career as an operetta soubrette, working her way from the chorus to starring in musical comedies to having her own feature act o ...

and Harry Conor, who introduced "The Bowery". A version of the show was produced in 1912 under the title '' A Winsome Widow'', and a film adaptation featuring

Anna May Wong Wong Liu Tsong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961), known professionally as Anna May Wong, was an American actress, considered the first Chinese-American movie star in Hollywood, as well as the first Chinese-American actress to gain intern ...

was made in 1926.

Background

Hoyt was born in Concord, New Hampshire (USA) in 1859. In the 1870s, Hoyt became musical and dramatic critic of ''

The Boston Post ''The Boston Post'' was a daily newspaper in New England for over a hundred years before it folded in 1956. The ''Post'' was founded in November 1831 by two prominent Boston businessmen, Charles G. Greene and William Beals. Edwin Grozier bough ...

''. Beginning in 1883, he began a career as a playwright, producing a series of twenty farcical comedies (roughly one per year until his death) and a

comic opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...

. Hoyt had his own theater, the Madison Square Theater, where ''A Trip to Chinatown'' was performed. AftertheBallSheet

''A Trip to Chinatown'' was Hoyt's 10th play. Hoyt's plays emphasized individualized characters drawn from the everyday experiences of ordinary people. Most of his plays were non-musical farces. Two of the songs from the show are still known, "The Bowery" and "Reuben and Cynthia." There were many interpolations of songs into ''A Trip to Chinatown'' due to the many touring companies, the most famous being Charles K. Harris's " After the Ball," which was not part of the 1891 Broadway production but became a big hit and was later interpolated into ''

Show Boat ''Show Boat'' is a musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling 1926 novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the performers, stagehands and dock worke ...

'' to exemplify the 1890s style. Versions of the script can be found in the 1941 Princeton University Press collection, ''Five Plays by Charles Hoyt'' edited by Douglas L. Hunt. In addition the George Washington University has microfiche copies of three versions of Hoyt's script, which changed as the cast changed, and differed from tour to tour.

Synopsis

A group of young people in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

tell their wealthy guardian, Uncle Ben, that they are going sightseeing in Chinatown. They really plan a night out on the town. They have engaged a chaperone, Mrs. Guyer, but her letter of acceptance is received by Uncle Ben, who misinterprets it as an invitation to a rendezvous. At "The Riche", the restaurant mentioned in the letter, where the young people have booked a table, he gets drunk. He does not see the young couples or Mrs. Guyer, and it turns out that he has forgotten his wallet, which leads to humorous complications. Ben is unable to scold the young people for deceiving him, as they point out that they know about his own night out.

Roles and original Broadway cast

*Welland Strong (a man with one foot in the grave) - Harry Conor *Ben Gay (a wealthy bachelor) - George A. Beane, Jr. *Tony Gay (his ward) - Avery Strakosch *Rashleigh Gay (his nephew) - Lloyd Wilson *Norman Blood (chum of Rashleigh) - Arthur Pacie *Willie Grow (a gilded youth - a trouser role) - Blanche Arkwright (later Queenie Vassar) *Noah Heap (waiter) - Harry Gilfoil *Slavin Payne (Ben's servant) - Harry Gilfoil *Turner Swift (runs the ice crusher) - W. S. Lewis *Isabel Dame (friend of the Gays) - Geraldine McCann *Hoffman Price (manager of Cliff House) - Frank E. Morsk *Mrs. Guyer (a widow) - Anna Boyd *Flirt (Mrs. Guyer's maid) - Patrice *Dancers

Musical numbers

The Bowery The Bowery () is a street and neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The street runs from Chatham Square at Park Row, Worth Street, and Mott Street in the south to Cooper Square at 4th Street in the north.Jackson, Kenneth L. "Bo ...

*Reuben and Cynthia *The Widow *Push Dem Clouds Away (an African cantata) *The Chaperone *Out for a Racket * After the Ball *The Sunshine of Paradise Alley *Love Me Little, Love Me Long *Do, Do, My Huckleberry, DoDo, Do, My Hucklerberry Do Music
(1893) (by Dillon Brothers) *Keep A-Knockin’ *Riding on the Golden Bike *Her Eyes Don't Shine like Diamonds *Only One Girl in the World for Me *Then Say Good Bye! *She's My Best Girl *Back among the Old Folks Once Again *McGee's Back Yard

1912 revision

In 1912, a revised version of the musical was produced by Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., with a score by

Raymond Hubbell John Raymond Hubbell (June 1, 1879 – December 13, 1954) was an American writer, composer and lyricist. He is best known for the popular song, " Poor Butterfly". Life and career Hubbell was born in Urbana, Ohio. He attended schools in Urba ...

, called '' A Winsome Widow''.Boardman, Gerald Martin
''American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle''
pp. 322–23 (2011 ed.)

1926 film

A silent film adaptation of the musical was released in 1926, called '' A Trip to Chinatown'', starring Margaret Livingston and featuring

and

Charles Farrell Charles David Farrell (August 9, 1900 – May 6, 1990) was an American film actor of the 1920s silent era and into the 1930s, and later a television actor. Farrell is probably best recalled for his onscreen romances with actress Janet Gaynor ...

. The screenplay was by

Beatrice Van Beatrice Van (born Beatrice Abbott; August 8, 1890 – July 4, 1983) was an American silent film actress. She was also a screenwriter for both silent and sound films. Biography Beatrice was born to Joseph and Beatrice Abbott in Omaha, Neb ...

, based on Hoyt's book, and the film was directed by Robert P. Kerr.

Notes

References

Information about the musical
2009-10-23)

External links

*
''A Trip to Chinatown''
at the IMDB database

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trip To Chinatown, A Broadway musicals 1891 musicals