Pantomime is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is performed throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and in other English-speaking countries, especially during the Christmas and New Year season. Modern pantomime includes songs, gags, slapstick comedy and dancing. It generally combines gender-crossing actors and topical humour with a story more or less based on a well-known fairy tale, fable or folk tale. Pantomime is a participatory form of theatre, in which the audience is encouraged and expected to sing along with certain parts of the music and shout out phrases to the performers.
The Christmas Pantomime colour lithograph book cover, 1890, showing harlequinade characters
2nd-century Macedonian theatrical sculpture, thought to represent a pantomime's mask
John Rich as Harlequin, c. 1720
Playbill of an English circus and pantomime performance, 1803
Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole. Although musical theatre overlaps with other theatrical forms like opera and dance, it may be distinguished by the equal importance given to the music as compared with the dialogue, movement and other elements. Since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals.
The Black Crook was a hit musical on Broadway in 1866.
A Gaiety Girl (1893) was one of the first hit musicals.
George Gershwin
Chinese opera performers