Revue

Early Revue

Chorus girls playing 'The Postcards' in the 'Country Cousins' scene in the Royal Alhambra Theatre revue 'Kill That Fly!', 1912 (click image for larger version)

Revue developed in the 1890s and was a collection of short sketches, songs, dances, comic interludes and even short plays. It differed from variety in that the acts were linked by a topical idea or theme.

In 1903 the first black revue In Dahomey reached the Shaftesbury Theatre introducing ‘The Cakewalk’, which became the latest dance craze. Other successful box offices imports from America included the revue Blackbird starring Florence Mills which opened in 1926.

Some music halls introduced revue as part of their regular programmes, featuring striking sets and large casts. By 1912, revues were very fashionable mostly because they included the latest American ragtime songs, like ‘Everybody’s Doing It’ and Irving Berlin’s ‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band’. First of the big American-style spectacular revues was Hullo Rag-Time! in 1912. Hullo Tango! at the London Hippodrome in 1913 had costumes designed by Leon Bakst.

Revue in 1920s and 1930s

Music sheet cover for 'Bubbles' from the revue 'Bubbly', May 1917 (click image for larger version)

Revue was the perfect entertainment for post World War 1 audiences, who wanted their entertainment light, fast-moving, topical and sophisticated. A more intimate revue developed where the emphasis was on wit and style rather than music and spectacle. The two most significant producers of intimate revue in the 1920s and 1930s were André Charlot and C. B. Cochran and Cochran produced Odds and Ends in 1914 starring the French actress Alice Delysia. It ran for over 500 performances. Delysia was to be a big star in England for the next thirty years.

André Charlot had introduced big-scale revue at the Empire Theatre before managing Cochran’s intimate revues. Inspired by their success, he branched out on his own. He had a good eye for young talent and introduced among others Beatrice Lillie, Gertrude Lawrence, Jessie Matthews and Jack Buchanan. His writers included Noël Coward. Several Charlot revues toured to America and British revue stars enjoyed a high profile on both sides of the Atlantic.

London Pavilion

C. B. Cochran established the London Pavilion in Piccadilly Circus as the home of revue. In the 1920s and 1930s the first night of a new Cochran revue was an annual theatrical highlight and a big social occasion. Noël Coward wrote music, lyrics and sketches and appeared in two of the most famous revues - On With the Dance (1925) with choreography and appearances by former Diaghilev star Leonide Massine and This Year of Grace (1928). Cochran loved dance and it always played a big part in his revues. In the 1920s and 1930s, before ballet companies could offer round-the-year employment in England, many dancers appeared in revue between their ballet engagements.

Revue after 1940

'Larger than Life' sketch in The Punch Revue, 1955. Museum no. TM 897-35 (click image for larger version)

By the 1940s and 1950s the style of revue had become light, charming and witty. The famous wartime revues were Sweet and Low, Sweeter and Lower and Sweetest and Lowest starring Hermione Gingold and Hermione Baddeley. Stars of 1950s revues included Ian Carmichael and Joyce Grenfell. Bamber Gascoigne’s one famous revue Share My Lettuce included Maggie Smith and Kenneth Williams in the cast. Michael Flanders and Donald Swann contributed songs to many revues and eventually became performers themselves, singing their own songs around the world in At the Drop of a Hat. Even Harold Pinter was a revue sketch writer.

The Punch Revue in 1955 included poems by Louis MacNeice, W H Auden and John Betjeman set to music by composers such as Benjamin Britten, Larry Adler and Donald Swann. Nearly 30 years before Cats, two T S Eliot poems from Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats were dramatised in a revue and performed by two dancers.

Most famous of the 1950s’ revues was Cranks, devised by choreographer John Cranko with designs by John Piper.

The Windmill Theatre

Fan dancing at the Windmill Theatre, London, mid 20th century. Museum no. TM/K.B.B/12 (click image for larger version)

The Windmill Theatre evolved its own particular brand of revue, mixing sketches, dances and comics with their famous nudes. Before the abolition of stage censorship in 1968, the Lord Chamberlain ruled that nudes were acceptable on stage so long as they stood still. This gave rise to the famous saying ‘If it moves, it’s rude’. Once censorship was abolished, revues like Oh Calcutta! and The Dirtiest Show in Town showed more explicit nudity and sexual licence.

In 1960 four young Oxbridge graduates changed the face of revue for ever. Beyond the Fringe with Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller returned revue to a more biting critical role and kick-started the 1960s topical satire boom in theatre and television.

Spectacular revue survived in the big showgirl extravaganzas at venues like the London Casino, sometimes as showcases for singers or comedians. These shows were imitations of the great Paris revues at the Folies Bergère or the Lido. Although they rarely appeared in England, the most famous troupe of show dancers were the Bluebell girls, who starred in Paris and in Las Vegas - most of the girls were British.

Cochran Revues

Programme for Charles Cochran's musical 'Ever Green' at the Adelphi Theatre, London, 1930 (click image for larger version)

The famous Cochran revues were annual events at the London Pavilion in the 1920s and 1930s. To work for Cochran was a great honour. The shows included numbers by the exciting young American songwriters like Cole Porter and Rodgers and Hart as well as English composers like Noël Coward and Vivian Ellis.

Cochran didn’t care whether a person was famous or not so long as they had talent. Leonide Massine had been star dancer-choreographer with Diaghilev, but Frederick Ashton and Antony Tudor were unknown when they made ballets for Cochran in the 1920s. So were many of his designers, like Rex Whistler and Cecil Beaton.

A great feature of the revues were the ‘Cochran Young Ladies’. They were pretty, could sing and dance in an elegant manner and epitomised the ‘ideal’ British girl of the time. One, Marjorie Robertson, later changed her name and became famous as the actress Anna Neagle.

Cochran’s association with Noël Coward started with the revue On With the Dance in 1925 and lasted ten years. He produced Coward’s greatest musical successes, Bitter Sweet and Cavalcade. An association with Vivian Ellis started in 1930 and Ellis gave Cochran his greatest musical success with Bless the Bride in 1947. It was so successful that Cochran became bored with it and shut it down while it was still playing to full houses!