Variety Performance
Variety in the UK started mainly in theatres and music halls, and then went onto working men clubs. Most famous British performers started off performing in variety shows. The main events in variety performance were the Royal Command Performance at the London Palladium.
In the 19th century variety performance known as Music Hall, was held in local public houses, these shows were raucous and often rude. Then in the 20th century variety performance was moved to much more grand, large theatres which would seat more, this was to draw the connection of drinking from variety. Sir Oswald Stoll who ran many theatres up north opened his first London theatre in 1904 called the Hackney Empire. Then in 1912 he opened a massive Coliseum which was known to be his favourite. When this theatre opened it contained the usually mixture of Song, Dance, Drama and Acrobats. The first set list contained famous performers of the time like singer Eugene Stratton, followed by Tina Clemintina with her dogs, the three Pattinsons on the trampoline, and a full-scale recreation of Derby Day, Which had a moving revolve and real horses, this was very grand to the audiences of the time and was a step up from the public houses. Another variety performance house was owned by Edward Moss who owned the Empire Palace theatres at Finsbury Park. Moss's Palace theatre was the first venue to the Royal Command Performance where King George and Queen Mary sat through the performance. The 1950's saw a lot of variety theatres close due to lack of interest by audiences. Now days the most popular variety theatres are the London Palladium. This is now the current venue for the Royal Variety Performance.
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