1. Vaudeville<br />Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Burlesque was in England and started in the 1800’s.<br />Vaudeville was originally the term for a light song. It was imitated from the drinking songs attributed to French singer Olivier Basselin and called Vau de Vivre (referring to the Vireo valley of France where it originated). <br />At the end of the nineteenth century this light-hearted form of entertainment was adapted for the stage in France, England, and the United States. Eventually known as vaudeville, it evolved into a variety show that consisted of music, theatre, and comedy sketches intended for a wide audience.<br />Vaudeville reached the American stage by the 1870s, when acts were performed in New York, Chicago, and other cities. Troupes traveled a circuit of about 1,000 theatres around the country and as many as two million Americans flocked to the shows each day.<br />Script writers attracted immigrant audiences by using ethnic humour and exaggerated dialects, and by joking about the hardships of daily...<br />Burlesque<br />As derived from literature and theatre, quot;
burlesquequot;
was used, and is still used, in music to indicate a bright or high-spirited mood, sometimes in contrast to seriousness.<br />Until the 1870s, burlesques were often one-act pieces running less than an hour and using pastiches and parodies of popular songs, opera arias and other music that the audience would readily recognize.<br />