vaudevilles
Old theatrical entertainments
Vaudevilles is the plural of vaudeville, a type of variety entertainment popular in American theaters from the 1880s through the 1930s.
Shows featured a succession of unrelated acts—singers, comedians, acrobats, magicians, trained animals—on a single bill.
The word now evokes a nostalgic era of live popular entertainment before film and radio displaced it.
Multi-act entertainment programs
- actsDeeds or play sections
- sketchesRough, quick drawings
- comedyWork meant to amuse
- slapstickExaggerated physical humor
song and dance · revues · burlesque · minstrel · hoofers · soft-shoe · pratfalls · routines
Five-cent entertainment venues
- touringTraveling for pleasure
- troupesTraveling performer groups
- circuitsClosed electrical paths
- chainsLinked metal restraints
golden age · decline · talkies · radio · 1920s · Tin Pan Alley · Broadway · music halls
Performers who provoke laughter
- singersThose who vocalize melodies
- dancersPeople who move rhythmically
- acrobatsPerformers of athletic feats
- magiciansPractitioners of sleight-of-hand
jugglers · ventriloquists · animal acts · double acts · emcees · hoofers · crooners · impressionists
variety shows
Multi-act entertainment programs
slapstick · song and dance · revues · burlesque · minstrel · hoofers · soft-shoe · pratfalls · routines · headliners
nickelodeons
Five-cent entertainment venues
chains · golden age · decline · talkies · radio · 1920s · Tin Pan Alley · Broadway · music halls · impresarios
comedians
Performers who provoke laughter
- singersThose who vocalize melodies
- dancersPeople who move rhythmically
- acrobatsPerformers of athletic feats
magicians · jugglers · ventriloquists · animal acts · double acts · emcees · hoofers · crooners · impressionists · contortionists
- ChekhovAnton Chekhov, The Seagull, The Cherry Orchard, playwright, Uncle Vanya
- vocal musicsong, vocals, soprano, tenor, alto
vaudevillestragedies
Dramas with fatal endings
grand opera · Greek tragedies · Shakespearean tragedies · legitimate theater · straight plays
vaudevillesgrand opera
Fully sung dramatic spectacle
classical theater · legitimate theater · prestige drama · repertory theater
vaudevillesavant-garde performance
Innovative, norm-breaking staged work
experimental theater · funerals · requiems · dirges · lamentations
- vaudeville actStaged entertainment in revues
- vaudeville theaterVenue for variety shows