The Gaiety Theatre used to be a West End theatre in London. It was knocked down in 1956 after having been closed since 1939, and has now been transformed into The Silken Hotel.
It was here that Charles Dickens saw his last play before death, by the name of Uncle Dick's Darling.
The Gaiety was established in 1864 as the Strand Musick Hall, and even though it was rebuilt several times, it officially closed at the beginning of WWII in 1939 after having suffered bomb damage.
It has been said that from 1868 to the early 1890s, the theatre had an important influence on the development of modern music comedy.
On its opening evening of the 21st December 1868, On the Cards was performed as well as Robert the Devil, a burlesque of the opera Robert le Diable.
Originally, the theatre was known as a music hall and then for musical burlesque. It became the main venue in London for burlesque, operetta and light comedy.
The theatre was the only theatre at that time to ban smoking & drinking within the hall, these activities were to be done in the adjacent saloons.
In the 1860s and 1870s, burlesques were essentially one-act pieces running less than an hour and would use songs and music that the audience would recognise. It was a certain Edwardes that expanded the format to a full-length show with two or three acts, becoming the 'new burlesques'.
A typical evening at the Gaiety would most probably have included a three-act comic play and a musical extravaganza including a ballet or pantomime.
As tradition had it, during the four hour evenings, regulars would skip an act to eat in one of the plush restaurants owned by the theatre, play billiards or drink in one of the bars.
The “new burlesques” were soon taken over by new shows that featured fashionable characters, tuneful music, romantic lyrics, witty banter and good dancing. The success of the first of these was A Gaiety Girl in 1893.
For two decades, “girl” musicals were the height of the moment, especially these beautiful, dancing Gaiety girls.
Gaiety Girls were fashionable, elegant, polite and well behaved young ladies, somewhat different to the burlesque actresses, and became a popular symbol of womanhood.
To balance the “girl” musicals for which the Gaiety had become famous, “boy” themed musicals were also performed.
Musicals continued at the Gaiety until the 1930s with the last show being Running Riot.
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