Chu Chin Chow

Chu Chin Chow is a musical comedy written, produced and directed by Oscar Asche, with music by Frederic Norton, based (with minor embellishments) on the story of Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves. The piece premièred at His Majesty's Theatre in London on 3 August 1916 and ran for five years and a total of 2,238 performances (more than twice as many as any previous musical), a record that stood for nearly forty years until Salad Days.<ref>Although Salad Days was the first musical to break the Chu Chin Chow record, the first play to break its record was Abie's Irish Rose in 1927 on Broadway. See: "Abroad", The Manchester Guardian, June 2, 1927, p. 15</ref> The show's first American production in New York, with additional lyrics by Arthur Anderson, played for 208 performances in 1917–1918, starring Tyrone Power. It subsequently had successful seasons elsewhere in America and Australia, including in 1919, 1920, 1921 and 1922.