American burlesque
American burlesque is a genre of variety show derived from elements of Victorian burlesque, music hall, and minstrel shows. Burlesque became popular in the United States in the late 1860s and slowly evolved to feature ribald comedy and female nudity. By the late 1920s, the striptease element overshadowed the comedy and subjected burlesque to extensive local legislation. Burlesque gradually lost its popularity, beginning in the 1940s. A number of producers sought to capitalize on nostalgia for the entertainment by recreating burlesque on the stage and in Hollywood films from the 1930s to the 1960s. There has been a resurgence of interest in this format since the 1990s.
"Girlie show" redirects here. For other uses, see The Girlie Show (disambiguation).History[edit]
19th century[edit]
There were three main influences on American burlesque in its early years: Victorian burlesque, "leg shows" and minstrel shows.[9] British-style burlesques had been successfully presented in New York as early as the 1840s.[10]
Burlesque in the United States is believed to have begun in New York with the arrival from England of Lydia Thompson's burlesque troupe, "The British Blondes".[11][12][13][14] It was the most popular entertainment in New York during the 1868–1869 theatrical season: "The eccentricities of pantomime and burlesque – with their curious combination of comedy, parody, satire, improvisation, song and dance, variety acts, cross-dressing, extravagant stage effects, risqué jokes and saucy costumes – while familiar enough to British audiences, took New York by storm."[15] Unfortunately, “the female audiences for burlesque did not last for long. In the summer of 1869 a wave of ‘anti-burlesque hysteria’ in the New York press frightened away the middle-class audiences ... and sent the Thompson troupe prematurely packing for a national tour”.[16] After this untimely closure, backlash against burlesque continued to grow. Thompson's shows were described as a “disgraceful spectacle of padded legs jiggling and wriggling in the insensate follies and indecencies of the hour”.[17] The New York Times consistently expressed its disgust of burlesque, even headlining an article with the plea “Exit British Burlesque”.[16]
"Leg" shows, such as the musical extravaganza The Black Crook (1866), became popular around the same time.[18] The influence of the minstrel show soon followed; one of the first American burlesque troupes was the Rentz-Santley Novelty and Burlesque Company, created in 1870 by Michael B. Leavitt, who had earlier feminized the minstrel show with his group Madame Rentz's Female Minstrels.[19] American burlesque rapidly adopted the minstrel show's tripartite structure: part one was composed of songs and dances rendered by a female company, interspersed with low comedy from male comedians. Part two featured various short specialties and olios in which the women did not appear. The show's finish was a grand finale. Sometimes the entertainment was followed by a boxing or wrestling match.[9]
By the 1880s, the four distinguishing characteristics of American burlesque had evolved:
Stage shows and revivals[edit]
A Broadway musical called Burlesque opened September 1, 1927 and ran until July 14, 1928. Top Banana, a musical with music and lyrics by Johnny Mercer and book by Hy Kraft and starring Phil Silvers premiered on Broadway in 1951. The original Broadway production of "Gypsy" opened on May 21, 1959 and closed on March 25, 1961 after 702 performances. In 1962, famed strip teaser Ann Corio put together a nostalgic off-Broadway show, This Was Burlesque, which she directed and in which also performed. (In 1968, she wrote a book with the same title.) Corio's show toured for almost two decades. In 1979, the Broadway musical Sugar Babies, recreated a Mutual-era show. A loose stage adaptation of The Night They Raided Minsky's, called Minsky's, opened on February 6, 2009, at the Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles, and ran three weeks. A 2013 play, The Nance, written by Douglas Carter Beane, focuses on a camp stock character in a 1930s burlesque troupe.