About the work
Farce with song in three acts by Johann Nestroy, premiered on 10 March 1842 at the Theater an der Wien; the music was written by Adolf Müller. It was based on the English one-act farce "A Day Well Spent" by John Oxenford (1835).
Plot
The shop assistant Weinberl decides, together with the apprentice Christopherl, to head off secretly into Viennese city life for a day while their miserly employer Zangler is away. By chance their paths cross with Zangler's own, as he is incognito to visit his fiancée Madame Knorr, and with entanglements involving Zangler's ward Marie and her secret lover. In the end everything resolves to general satisfaction.
Cultural significance
The play is among Nestroy's most frequently performed works and twice served Thornton Wilder as a source – in 1938 for "The Merchant of Yonkers" and in 1955 for "The Matchmaker," which in turn became the basis for the musical "Hello, Dolly!"