The Merchant of Yonkers had its origins in an 1835 one-act farce A Day Well Spent by the English dramatist John Oxenford.

In 1842 A Day Well Spent was extended into a full-length play entitled He'll Have Himself a Good Time by Austrian playwright Johann Nestroy.

Produced by Herman Shumlin and directed by Max Reinhardt, The Merchant of Yonkers opened on Broadway December 28, 1938, at the Guild Theatre.

The production ran through January 1939, for 39 performances, with the following among the cast:[1] In 1954, at the request of Edinburgh Festival director Tyrone Guthrie, Wilder made what he later termed "minor revisions" to his original script and rechristened the piece The Matchmaker, under which title it was presented in Edinburgh, followed by a West End theatre production in London which opened at Theatre Royal Haymarket on November 4, 1954.

The Matchmaker later served as the basis for Jerry Herman's 1964 musical hit Hello, Dolly!, running for 2,844 performances.