The Making of the West End Stage: Marriage, Management and the Mapping of Gender in London, 1830–1870

Bratton, Jacky

ISBN 10: 0521519012 / ISBN 13: 9780521519014

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2011

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Seller Inventory # ria9780521519014_new

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Making of the West End Stage: Marriage, Management and the Mapping of Gender in London, 1830?1870
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521519012
• ISBN 13: 9780521519014
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

All roads lead to London – and to the West End theater. This book presents a new history of the beginnings of the modern world of London entertainment. Putting female-centered, gender-challenging managements and styles at the center, 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 Theater 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 theater of music, feeling and spectacle.

About the Author

Jacky Bratton is Professor of Theatre and Cultural History at Royal Holloway, University of London. She is the author of New Readings in Theatre History (2003) and, with Ann Featherstone, The Victorian Clown (2006), which published previously unknown materials by Victorian comedians. In 2010 some of these stories were given a series of Radio 4 readings. She contributes to many radio and TV programmes about Victorian theatre.