Goodbye Charlie is a stage play by George Axelrod. It began playing in 1959 and was on Broadway starring Lauren Bacall by 1960. As a play, it was a flop. But, the 1964 film adaptation had more success.
The story begins with a memorial service for screenwriter Charles "Charlie" Sorel. Charlie was a known womanizer and had been caught with the wife of producer Alexander Mayerling, Rusty. At the time, he was on the Mayerlings' yacht and shot as he fled through a port hole, his body lost at sea. The memorial service is at Charlie's beach house, where the entire play is set. The memorial is attended by the wife of one of Charlie's directors, his tax accountant, his lawyer, and his friend George Tracy. After everyone leaves, Rusty Mayerling arrives and pays her respects. After she leaves, a mysterious woman dressed only in an overcoat arrives, claiming to be Charles Sorel. It takes some work to convince George, but he finally realizes that she is indeed the reincarnation of Charlie. Through the play, Charlie must find a way to cope with her transformation. In the end, she finds herself in love with George, and goes to bed praying that somehow George could forget she was once the man who had been his friend. Then, the play goes back to the end of the memorial service with George cleaning up. This time, the female Charlie arrives and begins speaking to him, but never tells him who she is.
Unlike the better know 1964 movie, the play never shows the male version of Charlie, and it never leaves the setting of George's beach house. Some of the character names are different, and the play lacks the plot-line involving a wealthy suitor for the female Charlie. And, the play is kinder to Charlie in the end than the movie was.
Goodbye Charlie provides examples of:
- Best Friend: George is Charlie's best friend. With Charlie's new sex, George is tempted, but rejects the romantic possibilities. Charlie, on the other hand is open to them.
- Gender Bender: Charlie is shot by a jealous husband and falls out a porthole. He's lost at sea only to find himself returned as an attractive woman.
- Karmic Transformation: Charlie had a low opinion of women, seeing them as objects, yet is transformed into a woman himself.
- Laser-Guided Karma: As a man, Charlie was a notorious womanizer. He is resurrected as a woman.
- Reincarnated as the Opposite Sex: Charlie Sorel dies and comes back as a woman.
