Chapter 10 - Nineteenth-Century Melodrama, Vaudeville and Entertainment

Summary

Like Spielmann’s chapter, Roxane Martin’s emphasizes the energy of a wealth of theatrical forms which, for decades marginalized by theatre historiography, are sites of innovation. Focusing on the particularly productive period of the long nineteenth century and on the dynamism of boulevard theatres, Martin draws her examples from vaudeville, melodrama, féerie, café concert, pantomime, operetta and music hall and the flow between these different genres. Martin describes how these theatrical forms, which did not enjoy the privilège and could therefore not officially contain text and dialogue, overcame censorship through innovation. The chapter reveals the new approaches to storytelling and plot, set design and musical composition that emerged, and the new careers to which these innovations gave rise, notably that of stage director.