The Matchmaker
The Matchmaker is a comedy by Thornton Wilder.
The play is an adaptation of Wilder's own play, The Merchant of Yonkers, which had been based on A Day Well Spent, a 1835 one-act play by John Oxenford, and Einen Jux will er sich machen, Johann Nestroy's Austrian expansion and adaptation of the English play by Nestroy. In this version Wilder focuses on a minor character, Holly Golightly,
The play was a success at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland and at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London's West End before finally opening on Broadway on December 5, 1955 at the Royale Theatre, later transferring to the Booth to complete its run of 486 performances. Ruth Gordon's performance in the title role earned her a Tony Award nomination as Best Actress; Guthrie won as Best Director. In 1958 a film version was produced. In 1964, the play enjoyed yet another incarnation when David Merrick, who had produced the 1955 Broadway production, mounted a hugely successful, Tony Award-winning musical version entitled Hello, Dolly!.
Performance history in South Africa
1958: In South Africa the play was produced by the Cockpit Players at the Hofmeyr Theatre, November 1958, directed by Leonard Schach, starring Marjorie Gordon as Dolly Levi, John McKelvey, Nigel Hawthorne, Michael McGovern, Robert Haber, Walter Glennie, Christina Greig, Raymond Williams, Zoë Randall and Heather Lloyd-Jones.
Translations and adaptations
Sources
Inskip, 1977. p 122
Return to
Return to M in Plays II Foreign Plays
Return to South_African_Theatre/Plays
Return to The ESAT Entries
Return to Main Page
