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5 unusual facts about Victorian burlesque


Frank Osmond Carr

Carr's first produced work (with lyricist Adrian Ross) was the burlesque Faddimir, or the Triumph of Orthodoxy at the Vaudeville Theatre in London in 1889, which gained the attention of producer George Edwardes.

Isabella Lampe

This was followed by several concert appearances and she did not return to the stage again until 1737 when she sang the heroine Margery in John Frederick Lampe’s burlesque opera The Dragon of Wantley.

Victorian burlesque

An 1859 burlesque of Romeo and Juliet contained 23 musical numbers, some from opera, such as the serenade from Don Pasquale, and some from traditional airs and popular songs of the day including "Buffalo Gals", and "Nix my Dolly".

Aristophanes, Rabelais, Geo Cruikshank, the authors of the Rejected Addresses, John Leech, Planché were all in their respective lines professors of true burlesque.

The Shakespeare scholar Stanley Wells notes that although parodies of Shakespeare had appeared even in Shakespeare's lifetime, the heyday of Shakespearean burlesque was the Victorian era.


Alice May

She first starred in F. C. Burnand and Meyer Lutz's operatic burlesque of Bluebeard, which had opened in London earlier that year.

Francis Pelham-Clinton-Hope, 8th Duke of Newcastle

She had gained fame on the London stage in 1893 and 1894, especially in the burlesque Little Christopher Columbus.

Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim

Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim (sometimes called Frankenstein, or The Model Man) is a musical burlesque written by Richard Henry (a pseudonym of Richard Butler and Henry Chance Newton).

Galatea, or Pygmalion Reversed

Galatea, or Pygmalion Re-Versed is a musical burlesque that parodies the Pygmalion legend, and specifically W. S. Gilbert's 1871 play Pygmalion and Galatea.

Henry Pettitt

Their Gaiety Theatre musical burlesques included Faust up to date (1888), which remained a hit for several years and coined a new meaning for the phrase "up-to-date", meaning "abreast" of the latest styles and facts.

Lionel Monckton

At the age of 29, in 1891, he finally managed to place the song "What will you have to Drink?", with lyrics by Basil Hood, in a professional musical burlesque called Cinder Ellen up too Late.

Po-ca-hon-tas, or The Gentle Savage

Po-ca-hon-tas, or The Gentle Savage (subtitled "An Original Aboriginal Erratic Operatic Semi-civilized and Demi-savage Extravaganza") is a two-act musical burlesque by John Brougham.


see also