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Attending Your First Burlesque Show: What to Expect
In last week’s blog, we offered inspiration for your attire for those of you who are new to attending burlesque shows. This week we decided to follow up on a similar theme, by taking a look at what to expect when attending your first show as an audience member.
It’s worth noting that due to the worldwide rise of burlesque over the last few years, there are many different kinds of shows out there. From seated ‘dinner and a show’ affairs to shows that merge with club nights, to small, local pub shows, to massive festivals hosting performers from all over the world and much more. Thus, not every show is the same, so we will be making some generalisations here.
Arrive in Plenty of Time
Let’s set the scene to begin with. Most shows open their doors between 30 minutes to an hour before the show begins. This gives the audience time to arrive, mingle, find their seats if it’s a seated event, get drinks and get comfortable before the stage action begins. It’s generally a good idea to get in before the show starts if you can; obviously this varies depending on the venue and set-up (you might be lucky and be able to sneak in unnoticed at the back if you’re late) but nobody wants to be that person trying to enter quietly and having to push through (especially if your seats are in the front row) once the show has begun.
As a general rule, burlesque shows are hosted by a compère or host. These fabulously engaging, multi-talented individuals are tasked with the enormous job of basically being the glue that holds the show together. They create a rapport with the audience, they introduce the acts and if they’re good, they weave a seamless magic that flows through the show making everything gel just right. If they have additional skills (for example, many hosts are also singers) then they’ll often drop in a performance or two of their own between the other acts. Without the host, you’d be looking at a series of disjointed, seemingly random performances with nothing to tie them all together, so the role of the compère is crucial.
What’s In a Show?
Burlesque shows are often split into two or three sections, with intervals between to allow the audience to top up their refreshments and powder their noses and whatnot. Each section will be comprised of a number of acts; if it’s a cabaret or variety show (as opposed to strictly burlesque) then, as well as striptease acts, you might see magicians, comedians, circus acts and more.
A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects. The word derives from the Italian burlesco, which, in turn, is derived from the Italian burla – a joke, ridicule or mockery.
Burlesque overlaps in meaning with caricature, parody and travesty, and, in its theatrical sense, with extravaganza, as presented during the Victorian era. "Burlesque" has been used in English in this literary and theatrical sense since the late 17th century. It has been applied retrospectively to works of Chaucer and Shakespeare and to the Graeco-Roman classics.Contrasting examples of literary burlesque are Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock and Samuel Butler's Hudibras. An example of musical burlesque is Richard Strauss's 1890 Burleske for piano and orchestra. Examples of theatrical burlesques include W. S. Gilbert's Robert the Devil and the A. C. Torr – Meyer Lutz shows, including Ruy Blas and the Blasé Roué.
A later use of the term, particularly in the United States, refers to performances in a variety show format. These were popular from the 1860s to the 1940s, often in cabarets and clubs, as well as theatres, and featured bawdy comedy and female striptease. Some Hollywood films attempted to recreate the spirit of these performances from the 1930s to the 1960s, or included burlesque-style scenes within dramatic films, such as 1972's Cabaret and 1979's All That Jazz, among others. There has been a resurgence of interest in this format since the 1990s.
Information collected from:
http://www.burlesqueandcabaret.com/general/attending-your-first-burlesque-show-what-to-expect/
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