266 Pages
by
Routledge
266 Pages
by
Routledge
272 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
This is the only book to provide an account of how popular theatre developed from the fairground booths of the eighteenth century to become a vehicle of mass entertainment in the following century. Whereas other studies offer a traditional approach to the theatres of high culture, John McCormick takes the role of impartial historian, uncovering the popular theatres of the boulevards, suburbs and fairgrounds. He focuses on the social and economic context in which vaudevilles, pantomimes and melodramas were performed, and explores the audiences who enjoyed them.
List of illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction Part I 1. Les theatres secondaires 2. Equestrians and acrobats 3. Away from the centre - the suburbs and the provinces 4. 'Forains' and fit-ups 5. audiences 6. Economics and economic problems 7. Censorship Part II 8. The vaudeville 9. Pantomime 10. The Feerie 11. The early melodrama 12. The social melodrama 13. Popular fiction and the theatre Conclusion Notes Index
Biography
John McCormick
'Lucid, tightly argued and highly readable ...' - Theatre Research Intl