Oscar Asche, Orientalism, and British Musical Comedy

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Brian Singleton

Book Code: C7929

ISBN: 0-275-97929-6

ISBN-13: 978-0-275-97929-4

DOI:

240 pages, photos

Praeger Publishers

Publication: 7/30/2004

List Price: $76.95 (UK Sterling Price: £44.95)

Availability: In Stock

Media Type: Hardcover

Also Available: Ebook

Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4

Subjects:

Literature » Drama
Literature » English Literature

Series Title: Contributions in Drama and Theatre Studies

Series Number: 106

Reviews:

Recommended. Comprehensive collections supporting work at the upper-division undergraduate level and above; all performing arts collections.
—Choice March 2005
[W]ell researched, accurate and balanced.
—Australasian Drama Studies April 2005

Description: This book tells the story of producer, actor, and author Oscar Asche, one of the most commercially successful actor/managers in the first half of the 20th century. Though virtually written out of theatre history because of his triumph on the musical comedy stage, he is most frequently remembered today as having had a successful career as an actor and producer of Shakespeare. Asche was an innovator in stage lighting and one of the first to use it as a language of the stage rather than as mere illumination. During World War I, he captured the public imagination and provided audiences with escapist musicals set in fictional orients. Oscar Asche excelled in many theatre genres, including musical comedy, pantomime, music hall, melodrama, and Shakespeare. He provided exotic erotica in orientalist musicals from Kismet to Mecca and brought unprecedented numbers of spectators to the theatre at its most difficult time. He was responsible for extending the life of musical comedy and orientalism in the theatre before cinemas would appropriate both genre and style.

Table of Contents:

Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Popularizing Shakespeare
Early Exoticism in Poetical Drama
Kismet
Return to the Natives
Chu Chin Chow
From Mecca to Cairo
Two Maids and a Mountain
Conclusion
Bibliography
Appendix A: Oscar Asche's Production Career
Appendix B: Asche's Career in Context

LC Card Number: 2004005242

LCC Class: ML429

Dewey Class: 792


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