Revue was the perfect entertainment for post
World War 1
audiences, who
wanted their entertainment light, fast-moving, topical and
sophisticated. A more intimate
revue developed where the emphasis was on wit and style rather
than music and spectacle. The two most significant producers
of intimate revue in the 1920s and 1930s were
André Charlot and C. B. Cochran and Cochran produced Odds
and Ends
in 1914 starring the French actress Alice Delysia. It ran for
over 500 performances. Delysia was to be a big star in England
for the next thirty years.
André Charlot had introduced big-scale revue at the
Empire Theatre before managing Cochran’s intimate revues.
Inspired by their success, he branched out on his own. He had
a good eye for young talent and introduced among others Beatrice
Lillie, Gertrude Lawrence, Jessie
Matthews and Jack
Buchanan. His writers included
Noël Coward.
Several Charlot revues toured to America and British revue
stars
enjoyed a high profile on both sides of the Atlantic.
London Pavilion
C. B. Cochran established the London Pavilion in Piccadilly
Circus as the home of revue. In the 1920s and 1930s the first
night of a new Cochran revue was an annual theatrical highlight
and a big social occasion. Noël
Coward wrote
music, lyrics and sketches and appeared in two of the most
famous revues - On With
the Dance (1925) with choreography and appearances by
former
Diaghilev
star Leonide Massine and This Year of Grace (1928).
Cochran loved dance and it always played a big part in his
revues.
In the 1920s and 1930s, before ballet companies could offer
round-the-year employment in England, many dancers appeared
in revue between their ballet engagements.
Early Revue
