Entries tagged 'history'

Pantomime: Where did it come from, and what’s the point?

By Nigel Godfrey, posted 02nd September 2011 at 7:39PM | Comments

{name}

Initially the pantomime in England was a short entertainment which was performed between the acts of an opera.  It was seen as a rather low grade form of opera, equivalent to the French vaudeville, but it was popular and eventually evolved into a show of its own.
Modern pantomime could be seen to date from the early 18th century in England when John Rich started to stage shows which became very popular indeed, especially as they added popular topical references and used a wide range of theatrical special effects.
Such shows continued to develop into the 19th century and by the 1870s were clearly recognisable as what we know as modern English pantomime today.
What made panto so...

Read article >