Oscar Asche, orientalism, and British musical comedy
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Oscar Asche, orientalism, and British musical comedy
(Contributions in drama and theatre studies, no. 106 . Lives of the theatre)
Praeger, 2004
Available at 2 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
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  Tochigi
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  Saitama
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  Tokyo
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  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
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  United States of America
Note
Bibliography: p. [207]-214
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
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
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