The Merchant of Yonkers
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The Merchant of Yonkers is a 1938 play by Thornton Wilder.
John Oxenford's 1835 A Day Well Spent, a one-act British farce, had been extended into a full-length play entitled Einen Jux will er sich machen by Austrian playwright Johann Nestroy in 1842. In 1938, Wilder adapted Nestroy's farce into an Americanized comedy entitled The Merchant of Yonkers, which attracted the attention of German director Max Reinhardt, who mounted a Broadway production at the now-defunct Guild Theatre with a cast that included Jane Cowl and Tom Ewell. The plot revolved around Horace Vandergelder, a wealthy Yonkers, New York merchant in the market for a wife. It opened on December 28 but was a dismal failure, running for a mere 39 performances.
In 1955, Wilder considerably rewrote the play, greatly expanding a previously minor character into the lead role, Dolly Gallagher Levi, and rechristened the piece The Matchmaker, under which title it was far more successful. It served as the basis for Jerry Herman's 1964 musical hit Hello, Dolly!.
