Performing Arts in Surrey, Sussex & Kent

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Burlesque is making a return!

The art of Burlesque

A contradiction in terms? Is there any art in burlesque? Some say Yes. Others – probably the majority – vehemently deny it. Presumably the early perpetrators of this unique form of entertainment definitely considered it art, for burlesque has severely high-flown origins. Its name, for one. Originating in Spain, burla travelled to Italy and became burlesco and thence to France for the word we know. Its literal translation is ‘to send up’. Wasn’t burlesque American in origin, a product of the ‘silent’ era of Fatty Arbuckle, the early Chaplin, Buster Keaton and the Keystone Cops, glamour courtesy of Mabel Normand? In 1954 Phil Silvers starred as the comic in a film about the subject, Top Banana  Read the rest of this entry »