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Charley's Aunt is a farce in three acts written by Brandon Thomas that broke all historic records for plays of any kind, with an original London run of 1,466 performances.
The play was first performed at the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds on 29 February 1892. It was produced by former D'Oyly Carte Opera Company actor, W. S. Penley, a friend of Thomas's, who appeared in the principal role of Lord Fancourt Babberly. Thomas himself played Sir Francis Chesney. The piece was a success, and it then opened in London at the Royalty Theatre on 21 December 1892 and quickly ...Read More
Charley's Aunt is a farce in three acts written by Brandon Thomas that broke all historic records for plays of any kind, with an original London run of 1,466 performances.
The play was first performed at the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds on 29 February 1892. It was produced by former D'Oyly Carte Opera Company actor, W. S. Penley, a friend of Thomas's, who appeared in the principal role of Lord Fancourt Babberly. Thomas himself played Sir Francis Chesney. The piece was a success, and it then opened in London at the Royalty Theatre on 21 December 1892 and quickly transferred to the larger Globe Theatre on 30 January 1893 to complete its record-breaking run.
It opened on Broadway at the Standard Theatre on 2 October 1893, where it ran for another historic long run of four years. The play also toured internationally (with long runs in Paris and elsewhere)and was revived extensively.
Silent film versions of the play were released in 1915 and 1925, the second featuring Sydney Chaplin (brother of Charlie Chaplin). A "talkie" film version starring Charles Ruggles was released in 1930, and is one of the earliest "talkie" comedies. Arthur Askey took the leading role in a 1940 British film Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt that developed themes from the original play. Perhaps the best known film version was released in 1941, directed by Archie Mayo and starring Jack Benny in the principal role.
A Broadway musical version, Where's Charley? written by Frank Loesser and starring Ray Bolger, ran between 1948 and 1950 at the St. James Theatre, was made into a 1952 film (with Bolger repeating his stage role), and began a successful run in London in 1958.
A Soviet version was made for television in 1975, entitled Hello, I'm Your Auntie!. It was also a musical, but had nothing to do with the Broadway version. The film's title is a Russian figure of speech, exclaimed when somebody receives some shocking news that he or she can hardly believe (akin to the English phrase, "Well I'll be a monkey's uncle!"). The film was an immense hit; many lines of dialogue subsequently became catch phrases themselves.
The Danish version was a 1959 theatrical movie release starring notable comedy actor Dirch Passer in the principal role. Other notable Danish actors in the production were Ove Sprogøe, Ghita Nørby and Susse Wold. In the film, Passer sings the song "Det er svært at være en kvinde nu til dags" (English: "It is hard to be a woman nowadays"). Passer premiered his role in Charley's Tante in 1958 at the ABC Theatre where it was a gigantic hit, and played for 1½ years.
The play's story also proved to be popular in Germany, with at least 4 different versions being released in 1934, 1956 (starring the immensely popular Heinz Ruehmann), 1963 (this one from Austria and starring Peter Alexander) and a television version in 1976.
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