Variety Report- draft

Variety report- section 3 Study of acts found in variety

Variety performance is a set of entertaining acts put into a show for the benefit of an audience. These acts can be anything from dance, singing, acting or a specific skill such as juggling, beat boxing or an animal act.

Variety performance dates way back to the 18^th century and prior when the public used variety events as a social gathering at the end of a long week. In the present day, 21st century variety performance is best known for its annual show called The Royal Variety Performance, which is shown in London’s Palace Theatre.  This show is one of the world’s most famous and highly respected variety events, which you must be invited to appear in.

Variety performances first started in music halls, dating back to 18^th century London. In music halls, acts would perform whilst audiences would eat, drink and join in with the singing acts. These events would be lively and for the working class who attended, possibly a weekly event in which they would very much look forward to as it was a retreat from their working lives. The fact music halls were an opportunity for the working class to relax after a long weeks work, suggests as to why they were so crowded and popular. These variety shows became so popular with audiences that they were later put on three times a week.

American vaudeville is another genre of variety performance, which developed from the idea of freak shows and American burlesque, which peaked between the late 1880s and the 1930s. American vaudeville also developed as a branch of American life after the civil war. The shows consisted of unrelated entertaining acts and similarly to music halls, would attract audiences of the middle class who would spend some time relaxing here as a retreat from their working lives.

There were different venues where variety performances would take place, these varied from rooms in drinking houses and pubs to purpose built music halls.

The London Palladium is one music hall, which has definite links to variety performance, past and present. This venue has held 40 of the British annual Royal Variety Shows, which are world famously known to be rich with talent and entertainment. The Palladium was first built in 1910 however was re built a year later and became an ice rink. The National Skating Palace. This however failed and was later redesigned by frank Matcham, a famous theatrical architect who turned the Palladium in to the theatre, as we know it today.

At the beginning of the 1920s, the theatre was a premium venue for variety performances.

A lower scale, rooms in drinking houses and pubs were also used as venues for variety performances. These venues would be for those of the working class and were only able to spend a small amount of money on food and drink whilst watching the variety show.

The most popular songs sung in music halls were funny and humours ones, audiences seemed to enjoy.

The Lion Comique was a type of performance, found in variety shows which started in Victorian music halls. The act, Lions comique was a parody of upper-class toffs. Alfred Vance and G. H. McDermott made Lions Comique popular and what we know it as today.

In the days early days of musical hall, character acts and speciality acts were very popular among audiences and there were many different types of these.

Adagio acts were a mixture of dance and acrobatics. This act saw women being thrown, spun and swung around by the men. The most well-known Adagio act was titled Romance in Porcelain and was by the Ganjou Brothers and Juanita. They performed from the 1930s until the group decided to end their act in the mid-1950s. They were among the highest paid variety acts of the 1940s as audiences clearly very much enjoyed witnessing women with high skill and flexibility being moved by men. In a way, male members of the audience could have been exploiting the women of the Adagio act as they would never have had the opportunity to see women in this way before. The women who took part in the Adagio act would have been extremely flexible and would have maintained a nice figure, which men would have admired, therefore paid money to witness in musical halls during the mid-20^th century.

In the late 19th century, riding a bike became fashionable and with this, the cycling act was developed in variety performance. These acts saw groups of cyclists perform tricks on both one and two wheel push vehicles and bicycles

In the 1880s, The Elliotts and the Seven Musical Savonas were popular because they were the only cycling band currently performing in variety shows. Later on in their successful career, they split into two contrasting acts. One was a cycling act which performed tricks and the other was the World’s Only Saxophone Band who played over 50 instruments between the seven of them. Hatsley, one of the seven performers rode a unicycle on the high wire while playing the trombone. This was something audiences had never witnessed before, making the prospect of danger and skill involved in the act, new and exciting for variety shows.

Another cycling act who became famous in early variety were Kaufmann’s Cycling Beauties. They were an all-female formation cycling team who wore full Edwardian fashionable dress or tight-fitting short-legged sporting gear which, as pictured below, looked surprisingly similar to modern sportswear one would wear to participate in cycling, water sports of running.

With the new invention/discovery of electricity in 1879 by Thomas Edison, the 'Electric' acts were born in variety, and made an appearance in music halls. The act exploited the new invention of electricity. Volta would electrify himself before lighting gas jets with the tips of his fingers or set fire to handkerchiefs by touch. This was one of the most dangerous acts that variety shows had ever seen and suddenly transformed music halls in to more thrilling places when the electric act was being show cased. The danger and possibility of something going wrong with the act seemed to excite audiences because this was a totally new idea for them. The idea that the new discovery of electricity could be made in to an act so quickly, would have made u=audiences wondering what could be next in the development of variety performance and technology advances. The Victorina Troupe developed the sword swallowing act, which saw them swallowing a bayonet fitted to a loaded gun. Miss Victorina, the lead performer, swallowed a lit electric light bulb which shone through her flesh.

Camp Variety Speciality Acts of the 1940s

Renee Dymott, known as ‘the unusual girl’, was a young lady variety performer who wore pointe ballet shoes on stage centre, performed pointe movements such as releves and plies  at the same time as playing a banjo. The idea of such an act sounds preposterous however watching her perform her speciality act, is in fact capturing and fascinating, explaining why audiences would watch her and others with unique and individual acts to offer.

Anna Howe’s act saw her dancing around the stage in a long gown and high heeled ballroom shoes. At the same time, she was playing the violin and bending backwards, gently landing on the floor and reversing this move, recovering to her original upright position, dancing around the room. When watching a video of Howe, you can clearly hear the audience’s reactions on the back ground. You hear laughs and a positive response, this shows audiences enjoyed viewing something with a unique edge to it and speciality acts clearly were the answer to their wishes.

Similarly to Howe’s performance, Vesta Tilley, a woman playing the xylophone and tap dancing whilst doing the splits, gets audience response when performing her act, as it is so unique and has never been attempted before. All three of these examples of speciality acts sum up the genre well, these acts are unique to the performer; require high levels of skill however don’t have any purpose besides entertaining their paying audiences, which they fulfilled fantastically!

Vesta Tilley, known as the tap dancing xylophonist, was also a male impersonator, which I talk about in the following paragraph.

Below, is a YouTube clip of Reene Dymott, Anna Howe and Vesta’s; Camp Variety Speciality Acts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMzQVe-ytA0

Male and Female impersonators

A male impersonator is a female performer who dresses as a male and acts as him whereas a female impersonator, is male performer who dresses as a female and acts as her.

Vesta Tilley was a male impersonator, also known for her tap dancing xylophonist work in variety in the 1940s. Her real name, Matilda Alice Powles, was born in 1864 and passed away at the age of 88 in 1952. She was an English music hall performer who also stared in the United States variety for over three decades. At the age of 11, she gained her stage name Vesta Tilley at age 11, and she went on to become one of the most famous male impersonators of her era.

Julian Eltinge, born in 1881 was an American stage, screen actor and female impersonator. After appearing in the Boston Cadets Revue at the age of ten in feminine garb, he was noticed by big shot producers and made it on to Broadway in 1904. As he began to rise to stardom, he appeared in vaudeville, touring Europe and the United States. Eltinge then took part in a musical comedy series, later returning to vaudeville in 1918.

Eltinge’s work as a female impersonator

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4e-n_BI8os

This YouTube clip shows Etinge’s work as a female impersonator. Here, we see she had an entourage of backing dancers filling the stage, performing Can-can stylised movements.  The act revolved around Eltinge prancing and dancing around the stage in a humongous flamboyant dress piece, complete with a feathered head set. In the interview after, she mentions many people have asked who made the outfit. This shows that another reason for people attending music hall variety shows is because of the beautiful outfits. These especially appeal to those of lower and middle classes as they wouldn’t have been able to afford outfits of anywhere near the beauty and quality of those seen in variety shows. This just another one of the many reasons the public paid to watch variety shows.

War recruitment

As we have seen in my research in to variety, the audiences very much enjoy and pay attention to the shows therefore, by collaborating war recruitment in to a variety show was a fantastic way of getting naïve young men to sign up to the army, at the same time as their parents and lovers allowing this to take place. The best example of war recruitment in variety is ‘Oh What a Lovely War’. The use of young women dancing around the stage in raunchy outfits, tempted the young men to sign up as sexual pleasure were suggests if they did so. Also, the performers of the variety show would sing songs with lyrics encouraging the young men in the audience that if they came to the army, they were doing a good deed for their family and country.

Phrases were spoken by the female performers such as “I’ll turn you in to a man” and “I’ll give you the time of your life”. This was suggesting to the audience that by men signing up for the army, they would be highly respected and their sexual urges would also be fulfilled.

Blackmail was another technique used by the performers, “A kiss a kiss from this lovely lady, for the first man to volunteer.” This gave the young nervous and fragile men a final push in to joining to army. This suggests how powerful variety acts could be, as war recruitment really did work for encouraging men to join the army when combined with variety.

Link to ‘Oh What a Lovely War’- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5JNE2i5lfM


In depth study in to two acts I might perform in the summer Variety show

In depth study in to two acts I might perform in the summer Variety show

My two chosen acts-

1)   Solo ballet piece

This is my first choice in act I would like to perform at the summer variety showcase. Ballet dance is something I have been doing for years and I am currently working on the grade 7 and intermediate exam syllabuses with the Royal Academy of Dance.

My first chosen piece relates to the work of late variety performer, Renee Dymott, who performed pointe movements such as releve and plié at the same time as playing a banjo. My chosen act relates to Renee Dymott’s act as they both express passion and sense of meaning through movement of the same elegant form, ballet. I have learnt both from watching Dymott’s act and taking regular lessons, that ballet is a passionate type of dance and takes a lot of strength to perform and perfect.

The venue I would be performing my ballet solo in is our very own Sealight Theatre in Worthing College. The size of the stage is a fairly large, plenty large enough for me to use the space well when dancing. I think this space is fully suited to a ballet solo, you can easily play around with the lighting on stage to create different atmospheric feelings which help set the scene of the performance for the audience. I might use a dime blue shade of lighting when performing, as I think this will add certain feel of fluidity and confidence. Also, the ballet solo I am planning to perform will include lots of movements, which requires me to make effective use of the stage space. Luckily, the Sealight theatre space is well suited to performance which need a large space as the stage is fairly large however the seating is very close to the stage space, making it an intimate performing space which also hold over 100 people. This results in the ability to seat large numbers of people to share our performances with and it increase the amount of feedback you receive which is a positive as a performer, allowing praise and constructive criticism to be taken.

2)   Duet taken from a musical

This is my second choice of act I would like to perform in the summer Variety showcase. I have a strong passion for singing, numbers that originate from musicals and I also enjoy performing duets with fellow class members.