Burlesque (play)

Burlesque is a play in three acts co-written by George Manker Watters and Arthur Hopkins. While described as a "play with music" and not strictly speaking a musical, the show did include songs with music by Albert Von Tilzer and Peter De Rose, and lyrics by Joe Trent and Edward Grant. A backstage drama set in the 1920s, the play tells the story of a husband and wife performing duo, Ralph "Skid" Johnson and Bonny King, who are smalltime burlesque theater performers in the United States. Their marriage is tested when Skid lands a job as leading comic in a hit Broadway show and the couple finds that success and fame come with a cost.

Burlesque was a hit play of the 1927-1928 Broadway season, and had a successful Broadway revival in 1946. It was adapted multiple times into films. Actor Hal Skelly starred as Skid in both the original Broadway production, and in the film's first screen adaptation in 1929. The work is remembered for being an important early stage success in the career of actress Barbara Stanwyck who achieved acclaim in the role of Bonny in the New York production at the age of twenty.

Plot

Set in the 1920s, the first act of the play takes place in a dressing room at a burlesque theater somewhere in the Midwestern United States. The plot follows burlesque show comic Skid Johnson and his wife, the dancer Bonny King, as they seek to move their way up in the entertainment world.