Victorian Burlesque

Victorian burlesque, also known in its own day as travesty or extravaganza, is a genre of theatrical entertainment that flourished in Victorian England and in the New York theatre of the mid-nineteenth century. It works by parody: a well-known opera, a piece of classical theatre, or a ballet is reworked into a broad comic play, usually itself a musical play and often risque in tone, mocking the theatrical and musical conventions of the original while frequently quoting or pastiching its actual text or music. Victorian burlesque is one of several distinct forms that burlesque has taken across its history.