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Show History
History
Inspiration
Divorce Me, Darling! is a direct sequel to creator, Sandy Wilson's, musical, The Boy Friend. Inspired by the immense success on the West End of his previous musical, Wilson set out to writing a follow-up piece. The musical is set ten years from the events in The Boy Friend, using the vast majority of the same characters. The show takes place in a hotel on the French Riviera, where the characters have taken a holiday, and main character, Polly, is torn about her recent marriage to Tony. While The Boy Friend uses many musical motifs from 1920s music, Wilson utilized comic pastiches of 1930s music for this show, most notably Cole Porter.
Productions
Divorce Me, Darling! premiered on December 9, 1964, at the Players' Theatre in England, where creator, Sandy Wilson's, The Boy Friend, the prequel to this musical, also premiered. About two months later, it transferred to West End at the Globe Theatre and ran for 91 performances. The musical was revised slightly in the late 1970s and mounted at the Tower Theatre on March 23, 1979.
Theatre Under the Stars in Houston housed the United States premiere of Divorce Me, Darling!, starring Kathleen Mahoney-Bennett, on July 14, 1984. The musical then made its return to the UK at the Chichester Festival Theatre in July 1997, with a leading performance from Ruthie Henshall.