Music Hall
The term Music Hall may refer to a physical building or venue, or to a form of theatrical and musical presentation.
Music Hall as the name of a venue
Originally music hall was a literal reference to the hall generally used for any kind of musical and other (musical) presentation, e.g. in a tavern or a public building. It thus gradually became the name given to a specific venue, also in South Africa.
As the notion of "music hall" as a theatrical form took shape, these venues gradually developed into gilt-and-plush “palaces” devoted to comic songs, varied with acrobatics, conjuring, juggling, and dancing. These "temples", "palaces" or "theatres" intended to host such variety shows were called music-halls in England and France. (In the USA the terms Variety - and later Vaudeville - were appended to the name of a hall.)
Large numbers of music halls were built in England in the second half of the 19th century and a few also in South Africa.
Some South African Venues
The music hall style performances themselves were popular in South Africa throughout the nineteenth century, often presented by visiting military units and most probably the huge influence of the first visit by the Christy's Minstrels, The music hall tradition really took hold round about the 1880’s when a number of entrepreneurs opened variety establishments in Cape Town and elsewhere, though interesting enough often using the American terms as well.
Music halls and other venues
Among the notable South African Music Halls have been the Trafalgar* (1850's, Durban), Burn's Music Hall (1880's, Kimberley), The Empire (1894, the first of three in Johannesburg) and The Tivoli (1903, Cape Town), hosting such performers as Charles du Val, Marie Lloyd, Little Tich, George Robey and Harry Tate.
The Music Hall on Church Square, Cape Town, was apparently used mostly for (serious) musical and other performances and meetings of various societies in the 1860s, including the Total Abstinence Society.
The Music Hall, Johannesburg, was a theatre built and operated by Luscombe Searelle in 1890s and taken over by Frank de Jongh round about 1898.
When music-hall venues dispensed with individual supper-tables to adapt to conventional theatre seating, many were renamed (e.g. Tivoli Theatre of Varieties, Empire Palace of Varieties ,
Bio-vaudeville and bio-vaudeville houses in South Africa
Bio-vaudeville houses were specifically built in the early 20th century to present both films and variety acts within the same programme (examples: The Criterion, 1912, Durban; The Palladium, 1913, Johannesburg).
See further Bio-vaudeville
Music Hall as form of presentation
Music-hall is a British term that came to refer to the form of presentation and generally refers to a form of entertainment deriving from song-and-dance and recitation shows of early 19th century public houses in England.
In France and the USA the term Vaudeville was more common, while the self-evident term Variety was later introduced in both Britain and the USA, with approximately the same meaning, in formulations such as "Variety shows", "variety arts", "variety entertainment" or quite simply "variety". In some cases the term cabaret is also found as an alternative named for a similar piece of entertainment.
In South Africa these forms arrived largely through the music hall and minstrel traditions introduced by artists and impresarios from England and the dominions, followed by a number of American vaudeville stars who visited the country in the early years of the 20th century.
Music Hall, Variety and Vaudeville in South Africa
The beginnings
The music hall style performances themselves were popular in South Africa throughout the nineteenth century, often presented by visiting military units and most probably the huge influence of the first visit by the Christy's Minstrels, the music hall tradition really took hold round about the 1880’s when a number of entrepreneurs opened variety establishments in Cape Town and elsewhere, though interesting enough often using the American terms as well.
Because Music Hall and Variety relied on the attraction, generally, of an imported performer as top of the bill with local supporting acts, the country has over the years hosted numerous international luminaries. In the late 19th and early 20th century for example performers such as Charles du Val, Marie Lloyd, Little Tich, George Robey and Harry Tate appeared on South African music hall stages.
In later years, under apartheid, this importation of international stars was hampered somewhat by the international cultural boyuycott, yet prior to the advent of television broadcasting in 1976, impresarios such as Jim Stodel and Pieter Toerien managed to arrange visits for Danny Kaye, Marcel Marceau, Liberace, Marlene Dietrich, Shelley Berman, among others, and the
South African variety shows and performers
South African variety performer/presenters include Eve Boswell, and Joan Brickhill and Louis Burke (the Minstrels and Follies series during the 1970's).Vaudeville and music-hall have been largely replaced by revue, musical comedy and television variety specials. * However, another important form of this tradition is what Loren Kruger (1999) calls African variety. With this she refers to a range of popular performance forms – mainly concerts and sketches - that she sees evolving in the urban black life from about the 1920’s. This seems to have drawn on such diverse influences as the commercial entertainments of European and American/African American culture, the ingoma and later ingoma ebusuku, Eisteddfodau, missionary choirs, rural modes of storytelling, praises, minstrelsy, “tribal sketches” and other vaudeville gags, and so on. Clearly is an influence on the evolution of the “township musical” and even more serious work such as Woza Albert and Sizwe Banzi is Dead. Among the major figures to work in or be influenced by this tradition she lists Griffiths Motsieloa, Todd Matshikiza, Gibson Kente, Mbongeni Ngema and Walter Chakela. (McM) (See: Gutsche, 1972, ) (See also Music-hall in South Africa , African Variety and Vaudeville above.)
Among the notable South African Music Halls have been the Trafalgar* (1850's, Durban), Burn's Music Hall (1880's, Kimberley), The Empire (1894, the first of three in Johannesburg) and The Tivoli (1903, Cape Town), hosting such performers as Charles du Val, Marie Lloyd, Little Tich, George Robey and Harry Tate.
When music-hall venues dispensed with individual supper-tables to adapt to conventional theatre seating, many were renamed (e.g. Tivoli Theatre of Varieties, Empire Palace of Varieties ,
In the early twentieth century, Bio-vaudeville houses were built to present films and variety acts within the same programme (Criterion*, 1912, Durban; Palladium, 1913, Johannesburg). Music Hall and Variety relied on the attraction, generally, of an imported performer as top of the bill with local supporting acts.
Prior to the advent of television broadcasting in 1976, Danny Kaye, Marcel Marceau, Liberace, Marlene Dietrich, Shelley Berman, among others, were imported by such impresarios as Jim Stodel and Pieter Toerien.
African Variety
Township music hall traditions
See for example African Own Entertainers,
Mid-century music hall
See also Cabaret
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Sources
Fletcher, 1994; Kaplan and Robertson, 1991, Stodel, 1962
For more information
See also Music hall
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