History of Theater: 1890 - 1920

During this period, musicals (which were labeled “musical comedies” at the time) were in the form of acceptable of guilty pleasures - the appeal of women and their sexuality, silly characters that made fools of themselves, or the goofy country girl dancing through the chores of the day. Ziegfeld’s Follies, Marx brother shows, and Al Jolson playing his character in blackface are great examples of these shows that focused on showing off the stars and gave little care to the

Broadway was one of the first forms of entertainment. Before there were television programs, or movies, there was Broadway. Broadway originated in New York in 1750, when actor-manager Walter Murray built a theatre company at the Theatre on Nassau Street. A musical would show about once every weekend. The shows were very male based, and would commonly show a relationship between young boys and their fathers. Women were slowly integrated into Broadway, and as society changed its point of view on women, so did theatre.

Theatre became important to Greek cultures when it became a part of the festival honoring the god Dionysus (The god of wine and fertility).”( Greek Mythology in Theater by Bruce Tucker October 27, 2016) The theater festival was founded to bring unity among the Attican tribes.( Greek Mythology in Theater by Bruce Tucker October 27, 2016) Athens was the main center of these traditions. Everyone came to sing and dance in hope for a good harvest. At one point, a Greek named Thespis began to sing praises to the god, with others responding, which led to the actor and chorus. During the festival everyone would dance and sing in a circle, in the middle of which was the altar to Dionysus. Over time the festivals started giving thanks to other themes, and eventually had nothing to do with Dionysus or any god, but began to turn into classical Greek plays. (First Ancient History, Oxford University Press 2000 pg.166)

Before vaudeville even got its name it was called variety shows in previous years. Variety shows had been around for a long time but as years progressed it became more diverse and had more acts included in it. Tony Pastor (known as the father of vaudeville) was one of the men credited for these variety shows. In 1881 Pastor established a variety theater in New York (“Vaudeville”). He had many different acts performed in his theaters, especially for family entertainment. He focused on very high standards of

At the start of the 20th century, the popular vaudeville shows that crossed the nation became

The stage performance of Chicago offered a spectacle that I expected before attending the show. I knew there was going to be scantly clad girls with dark makeup and saucy attitudes. The performers brought to life all that was raunchy in the entertainment business during the roaring twenties. The lifestyle in Chicago featured jazz, booze, sex and crime. More importantly, Chicago had beautiful, young women with the dream of having their own Vaudeville act. The two main female characters, Velma and Roxy were two such women hoping to capture the public's attention. The composition of the show is a metaphoric integration of Vaudeville type acts amongst the book scenes and diegetic musical numbers.

Theater is often considered a social event, because shows have set runs, and many people attend the show before it stops playing in the theatres. Many people often attend shows as a group.

On December 27, 1927 when the premiere of Show Boat opened in the spectacular new Ziegfeld Theater, producer Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. had brought something new to Broadway. As Katherine Leigh Axtell writes, the show was “neither an operetta nor a musical comedy, neither a vaudeville nor a revue.” For the first time, composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II seamlessly integrated plot, character, music, and dance into a modern musical production -- starting a new genre of musical, which is often called “musical theater” or “book musical.”

The presence of a passive audience facilitates the better performance of any show and encourages the performers to do well. In most cases, the success of any show, such as a comedy show, a dancing show, or a singing show depends on the audience. Vaudeville acts were not very famous until Keith and Albee, two entrepreneurs and the main characters in the second chapter, Vaudeville INC., of Robert Snyder’s book the Voice of the city, teamed up and reshaped the style of Vaudeville. In addition to their motivation to increase the popularity of vaudeville theater performances, “the middle class audiences” made a huge impact on vaudeville acts by attending them in great numbers. The development of vaudeville marked the beginning of popular entertainment as big business and demonstrated the changing tastes of an urban middle class audience. Keith and Albee made the tickets for vaudeville acts very inexpensive, ten cents a seat, and attracted the middle class. Shirley Staples, the author of Male-female comedy teams in American vaudeville,

Theatre today as in ancient Greek times is a popular form of entertainment. Today’s theatres share many similarities with the Greek predecessors however they are also very different. There are in fact many differences for example; layout, special effects, seating arrangement, the importance of drama and religion, setting, location and architectural features.

The theatre that you are most familiar with today generally comes via the movie version of an originally staged play. But if we go back further, we find that most of the theatre that is written and performed today can be traced back to Greek origins through various

     Theater originated from the religious rites of ancient Greek tribes. Located in northern Greece, a cult was formed to worship the God of wine and fertility, Dionysus. The cult held religious celebrations which included large consumptions of alcohol, animal sacrifices, and sometimes

2. The Elizabethan theater represented a great source of entertainment because it provided what people wanted: dancing, games and plays at an affordable price.

The comedy actors dressed in weird costumes that had paddled bellies or rumps for outrageous effects. “The comic playwrights made their own plots and they focused on important matters like: politics, philosophies, the new social class, and well-known personalities.” (Roy T. Matthews’s pg.70)

Imagine if it only cost you one penny to get tickets to a Broadway production. It would almost seem too good to be true! Well, back in the 1600s, in London, you could buy your way into a theater for as little as one penny. This price made it easy for anyone of any class to be able to partake in the festivities. Hence, the reason the theaters became so popular from 1562 to 1642. The theatres were very profitable based on the fact they were so popular in the community. The Elizabethan theatres were viewed as popular entertainment because of their fanciful attributes, their various events, and their several venues.