Musical Comedy on the West End Stage, 1890-1939

"This book offers the first full historical treatment of a music theatre that was once at the centre of London's West End. From the late Victorian period to the early 1920s, musical comedy was the single most popular form of 'legitimate' theatre entertainment. This lively account establishes musical comedy as one of the first modern cultures to take on an industrial dimension, both in its production and in terms of the marketing of the shows and their stars. It also offers fascinating insights into how musical comedy, with its confirmation of the British identity and celebrated embracing of the modern condition, functioned as a constitutive culture of the conservative centre."--Jacket.