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. A silent film of the musical, starring Betty Blythe, was produced in 1923 using some of the music. A talking film, with the score intact, was made by the Gainsborough Studios in 1934, with George Robey as Ali Baba, Fritz Kortner as Abu Hasan, Anna May Wong as Zahrat Al-Kulub, Frank Cochrane reprising his stage role of the cobbler, and Laurence Hanray as Kasim. The show toured the British provinces for many years. It returned to London in 1940 for 80 performances, when it was interrupted by the London bombing but then returned in 1941 for another 158 nights. In 1953, an ice version was produced at the Empire Pool in Wembley, London, starring Tyrone Power, which also toured the provinces and abroad. Occasional productions are still mounted, including one in July 2008 by the Finborough Theatre in London, England. Background The success of the "Arabian Nights" adaptation Kismet, a 1911 play by Edward Knoblock, inspired Oscar Asche to write and produce Chu Chin Chow. Asche directed the musical and played the lead role of Abu Hasan, leader of the forty thieves (the "Chu Chin Chow" of the title refers to the robber chief when impersonating one of his victims). Besides Asche, the production starred his wife, Lily Brayton, and the former D'Oyly Carte Opera Company star Courtice Pounds. Costumes were by the designer Percy Anderson.Chu Chin Chow was described as a combination of musical comedy and pantomime.