The first full-length study of comedy on the burlesque stage, this book takes the reader inside the burlesque houses of the 1930s, looks at the role comedy played in an entertainment form known mostly for striptease, and explores how these sketch performers approached their craft.
* New in paperback, never-before-published gags, routines, sketches and scripts * 'Contains gems of Dawsonian surrealism' The Spectator * 'How infinitely clever, pithy, imaginative and genuinely surreal were the works of Les Dawson...funny and touching selection' Mail on Sunday
With over 600 song titles of the period, this text provides both a source book for the music hall chairmen, and an historical insight into the genre. Whether researching for a music hall evening, or reading purely "for pleasure", this volume should make informative and amusing reading.
Featuring contributions by new and established nineteenth-century theatre scholars, this collection of critical essays is the first of its kind devoted solely to Victorian pantomime. It takes us through the various manifestations of British pantomime in the Victorian period and its ambivalent relationship with Victorian values.
Invites us to step back into an era when the hourglass figure was in vogue and striptease was a true art form. This book draws back the curtain to reveal the personal journeys of yesteryear's icons of female sexuality and power, restoring their legacy to an age that has all but forgotten them, despite resurgence of burlesque.
Offering a survey of variety musical theatre, this title chronicles the social history and class dynamics of the robust, nineteenth-century American theatrical phenomenon that gave way to twentieth-century entertainment forms such as vaudeville and comedy on radio and television.
A journey through the life of the oldest surviving music hall in Britain which is famed for being the place where Stan Laurel made his debut in 1906. Originally known as the Britannia, this early music hall was the site for many famous performances and debuts which included Harry Lauder, Charles Coburn, Dan Leno, and Marie Loftus.
Invites us to step back into an era when the hourglass figure was in vogue and striptease was a true art form. This title reveals the personal journeys of yesteryear's icons of female sexuality and power, restoring their legacy to an age that has all but forgotten them - despite resurgence of the art of burlesque.