The making of the West End stage
Subtitle: marriage, management and the mapping of gender in London, 1830-1870
By: Jacky Bratton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 222
ISBN-13: 9780521519014
Subjects: Women in the theater; Theater management; Theater; History
Description: "All roads lead to London - and to the West End theatre. This book presents a new history of the beginnings of the modern world of London entertainment. Putting female-centred, gender-challenging managements and styles at the centre, it redraws the map of performance history in the Victorian capital of the world. Bratton argues for the importance in Victorian culture of venues like the little Strand Theatre and the Gallery of Illustration in Regent Street in the experience of mid-century London, and of plays drawn from the work of Charles Dickens as well as burlesques by the early writers of Punch. Discovering a much more dynamic and often woman-led entertainment industry at the heart of the British Empire, this book seeks a new understanding of the work of women including Eliza Vestris, Mary Ann Keeley and Marie Wilton in creating the template for a magical new theatre of music, feeling and spectacle"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: Introduction; title: Mapping. Why the West End?; title: The Era: hierarchies, seriousness and the organ of the profession; title: Bohemian domesticity: the city of the mind; title: Making. Performing the crisis; title: The shaping of West End management; title: Showtime; title: Conclusion.