The Show Did Go On
How Theatre Changed after the Pandemic of 1918–19
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21522989 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Cheryl Thompson (0000-0003-3046-8619, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 187 |
| Pages | 91-93 |
| Publication date | 2021-07-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Canadian Theatre Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0315-0836 • E-ISSN: 1920-941X |
| Publisher | University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.3138/ctr.187.027 |
| OpenAlex | W3184123329 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 4 |
Using examples from Toronto’s newspapers, this article examines the impact of the 1918–19 Spanish flu pandemic on the city's theatre and the changes that followed in the twenties. Like during the COVID-19 pandemic, in 1918 health boards across Ontario ordered all theatres to close. However, after two weeks, theatres opened, and productions from New York City’s Broadway, such as the musical comedy Ask Dad, appeared at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, to rave reviews. Toronto’s stages became more diverse following the Spanish flu, with productions such as Shuffle Along, the first all-Black musical on Broadway, which hit the city’s stages in 1923, and one of the first locally cast shows, Amateur Minstrel Frolics, which appeared in 1924 at the Winter Garden Theatre. This article explores how and why the theatre changed after the last pandemic and what issues, such as those related to race and gender, lingered on
Amateur · Archaeology · Art · Art history · Comedy · Media studies · Musical · Newspaper · Pandemic · Performance art · Sociology · Visual arts · History · Medicine · Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism · Theater, Performance, and Music History · Theatre and Performance Studies
| Highly cited | No |
|---|