Einen Jux will er sich machen

Einen Jux will er sich machen (1842) (He Will Go on a Spree or He'll Have Himself a Good Time), is a three-act musical play, designated as a Posse mit Gesang, by Austrian playwright Johann Nestroy first performed at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna on 10 March 1842. The music was by Adolf Müller.

Although about half of Nestroy's works have been revived for the modern German-speaking audience and many are part and parcel of today's Viennese repertoire, few have ever been translated into English, because Nestroy's language is not only stylized and finely graduated Viennese dialect, but also full of multiple puns and local allusions.

Einen Jux will er sich machen is the only one that has become well known to English-speaking theatre-goers. It has become a classic more than once. It was adapted twice by Thornton Wilder, first as The Merchant of Yonkers (1938), then as The Matchmaker (1955), which later became the musical Hello, Dolly!. It also achieved success as the comic masterpiece On the Razzle, which was adapted by Tom Stoppard in 1981. Stoppard claims in his introduction that in most of the dialogues he did not even attempt to translate what Nestroy wrote.

The play itself was adapted from John Oxenford's A Day Well Spent (1835).

Weinberl and Christopherl go off to Vienna when they should be looking after Zangler's shop, only to run straight into their boss. (See the plot of 'On the Razzle' for more details.)

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