A Trip to Chinatown

A Trip to Chinatown
Cover of Vocal Score
Music	Percy Gaunt
Lyrics	Charles H. Hoyt
Book	Charles H. Hoyt
Productions	1891 Broadway

A Trip to Chinatown is a musical comedy in three acts with a book by Charles H. Hoyt, 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 two young suburban couples into a big city restaurant and brings romance to them and herself. It is loosely based on an 1835 English one-act farce, A Day Well Spent, by John Oxenford.

After almost a year of touring, the musical opened at Broadway’s Madison Square Theatre 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.^[1][2] 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 and Harry Conor, who introduced the song "The Bowery". The musical also ran in London for 125 performances.^[1]

A version of the show was produced in 1912 under the title A Winsome Widow, and a film adaptation featuring Anna May Wong was made in 1926.^[3]