Theatre Register
TriptoChinatown2.jpg

A Trip to Chinatown

Shows · A Trip to Chinatown

In a large American city at the turn of the century, two young couples are encouraged by a coquettish widow to defy a rich merchant by having a merry night on the town at a fashionable restaurant. Complications arise when the merchant also shows up at the restaurant and is stuck with their bill — which he cannot pay because he doesn’t have his wallet.

Opened
1891
Performances
657
Type
Musical
Era
Origins
Music: Percy GauntLyrics: Percy GauntBook: Charles H. Hoyt

Productions1 on Broadway

1891 Madison Square Theatre Original. November 9, 1891 · Charles H. Hoyt 657 performances

Every Broadway staging held in broadway-data, sourced to IBDB. West End runs are not yet held.

Licensing not confirmed

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In the literature26 passages

Another forerunner of Hello, Dolly! was the 1891 musical, A Trip to Chinatown. book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-seventh-edition-stanley-green-cary-ginell#p197

That August saw the return of vaudeville to the New York stage. January 28, 1908, saw a return of legitimate theater with the opening of The Soul Kiss (122 performances) starring Cecil Lean and Adeline Genee. It was followed by Richard Carle in Mary’s Lamb (5/25/08; 16 performances). Another big hit, Miss Innocence (17… book:broadway-its-history-people-and-places-an-encyclopedia-bloom-ken-1949-2nd-ed-new#p409

Earlier shows that displayed unequivocally American themes—for example, the so-called Mulligan shows of Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart between 1879 and 1883, Percy Gaunt and Charles H. Hoyt’s phenomenally successful A Trip to Chinatown in 1891 (657 performances), book:enchanted-evenings-the-broadway-musical-from-show-boat-block-geoffrey-oxford-new#p29

A Trip to Chinatown contained “Reuben and Cynthia,” “The Bowery,” and Charles K. Harris’s “After the Ball” book:enchanted-evenings-the-broadway-musical-from-show-boat-block-geoffrey-oxford-new#p611

1891 4 May: Wang, a show that remained popular for several seasons, opens at the Broadway Theater and runs through the summer. 22 September: Robin Hood, a spectacularly successful comic opera with libretto by Harry B. Smith and music by Reginald De Koven, opens at the Standard Theater. 9 November: A Trip to Chinatown,… book:historical-dictionary-of-the-broadway-musical-volume-22-william-a-everett-paul-r#p14

Among the first true musical comedies was A Trip to Chinatown (1891), praised for its fast pace and based on vaudeville routines with language close to natural American speech. book:historical-dictionary-of-the-broadway-musical-volume-22-william-a-everett-paul-r#p270

Passages naming this show, found by keyword across 178 books. Where this show turns up in the literature, not curated trivia about it.

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