...some Parisian friends who turned up unexpectedly at Wilton's Music Hall the other night. "Music Hall?" they said. "This was really one of the first concert halls - ?" So I tried to describe what that English 19th- to early 20th-century concept of music hall entertainment was all about: the stand-up comedy, sort of, the Gracie Fields-type songs, tap-dancing, risque and suggestive this, that and the other, and...well, it's so English that it's not easy to give an accurate picture, so I looked it up on Youtube.
And guess what I found? A cancan. From 1943. Not so English after all. Voila!
1 comment:
Great clip, great can-can, but I'm not sure it's great music-hall: the audience are all sitting round gentrified little tables, whereas I picture music-hall as being proudly - and rowdily - of the people, packed in rows, priced for proximity rather than privacy.
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