Charley's Aunt is a farce in three acts written by Brandon Thomas. The story centres on Lord Fancourt Babberley, an undergraduate whose friends Jack and Charley persuade him to impersonate the latter's aunt. The complications of the plot include the arrival of the real aunt and the attempts of an elderly fortune hunter to woo the bogus aunt. The play concludes with three pairs of young lovers united, along with an older pair β Charley's real aunt and Jack's widowed father. It then opened in London at the Royalty Theatre on 21 December , and quickly transferred to the larger Globe Theatre on 30 January The production broke the historic record for longest-running play worldwide, running for 1, performances.
It was produced by the actor W. Penley , a friend of Thomas, who appeared as Babberley. The play was also a success on Broadway in , and in Paris, where it had further long runs.
It toured internationally and has been revived continually and adapted for films and musicals. Charley receives word that his aunt, Donna Lucia d'Alvadorez, a rich widow from Brazil whom he has never met, is coming to visit him. The boys invite Amy and Kitty to lunch to meet her, also intending to declare their love to the girls, who are being sent away to Scotland with Amy's uncle, Stephen Spettigue, who is also Kitty's guardian.
They seek out another Oxford undergraduate, Lord Fancourt Babberley known as "Babbs" , to distract Donna Lucia while they romance their girls. While they are out, Babbs breaks into Jack's room to steal all his champagne, but Jack and Charley intercept him and persuade him to stay for lunch.
Babbs tells the boys about his own love, the daughter of an English officer called Delahay, whom he met in Monte Carlo , although he does not remember her name. Babbs also uses Jack's room to try on his costume for an amateur play in which he is taking part. Amy and Kitty arrive to meet Jack and Charley, but Donna Lucia has not arrived yet, and so the girls leave to go shopping until she shows up.
