The Acts

Variety was born on the music hall stage, and so naturally music hall bills were filled with an array of very diverse acts.

The Comic Singer

The comic singer is the performance style most associated with music halls in public memory. The comic singers were generally the stars of the halls and usually toped the bill. Their songs portrayed working class lives in a comical manner, often making jokes about debt, lodgers, mothers-in-law and marriage. They were popular in all music halls, even the middle-class and aristocratic venues. Some singers even performed in specialised character acts.

The ‘coster’ singers, the most famous of whom were Gus Elen and Albert Chevalier, played up to cockney stereotypes during their performances. Arguably, the most famous ‘coster’ song was 'My Old Dutch' by Chevalier:

We've been together now for forty years,

An' it don't seem a day too much,

There ain't a lady livin' in the land

As I'd swop for my dear old Dutch.

The Lions Comiques were the opposite to the ‘coster’ singers. They portrayed ‘swells’; fashionable young men who enjoyed the high life of drinking and socialising. George Leybourne, Arthur Lloyd and the Great Vance were the most famous examples, and all were hugely popular in the 1870s and 80s.

Male impersonators were also very popular. Vesta Tilley specialised in portraying fashionable young men, very much in the style of the Lion Comiques while Hetty King impersonated working-class men.

Marie Lloyd (left) was one of the most iconic comic singers and was affectionately called 'Queen of the Music Halls'. She was famous for turning seemingly innocent lyrics into innuendos. Her most well known songs include, 'The Boy I Love is Up in the Gallery', 'My Old Man Said follow the Van', and 'A Little Bit of What you Fancy'.

Dan Leno (right) was another iconic comic singer and was given the title of 'Funniest Man on Earth'. He specialised in creating character acts based on working class individuals he had encountered in his daily life.

Circus Acts

Many of the acts we would expect to see at the circus were first performed at music halls. It appeared as if nothing was off limits for the more ambitious music hall proprietors, their attitude being, ‘the greater the spectacle the better’. They wanted their audiences to be stunned and experience a show they would never forget. Typical shows included acrobats, animal acts, aerial displays, including trapeze performers and tightrope walkers, sword swallowers, jugglers, cycling troupes, and much more.

My Peter Charlton, co-historian of the British Music Hall Society, explains how music halls incorporated circus acts.

Magic Shows

Illusionists, like the circus acts, contributed to creating an atmosphere of grand spectacle within the halls. They were so popular that the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly Circus specialised in showcasing magical acts. Typical acts included mindreading, hypnotism, and even sawing a lady in half; a trick that today we are all too familiar with, but one that was astounding to Victorian audiences. Some of the most famous illusionists of the day included Henry Evans (stage name Evanion), John Nevil Maskelyne and David Devant. Harry Houdini even appeared at the Alhambra Theatre in 1900 where he performed his renowned escaping handcuffs act.

Houdini and his handcuff act.

An advertisement for the Egyptian Hall from 1888, British Library.

Other Acts

Other acts that frequently entertained audiences included ventriloquists, dancing acts, slapstick comedians and even electricity acts, whereby performers used static electricity to set handkerchiefs alight through their fingertips. Music halls were always quick to showcase the latest advancements in science and technology.

Touring Patterns

The touring patterns of music hall stars are explained below by Mr Peter Charlton.

Below Mr Charlton further discusses international touring and offers an amusing story about a fraudulent music hall show held in South Africa.

Did you know?

The acts that featured on the lower end of the bill were known as the 'wine and spirits' acts, because the print size of their names on the bill was the same size used as the adverts for wines and spirits.

There were some acts, particularly dancers and acrobats, who never made it out of the 'wine and spirits' section of the bill. Often in historical accounts these acts are overlooked in favour of the stars. It is harder to recount their life stories because fewer historical documents survive referencing them.

However, they, along with the musicians and stage hands, were the backbone of the halls. Without them, the music hall industry would not have existed. They toured relentlessly. Some would tour the halls of a particular region, while others would tour the entire country. Status determined pay, and so those lower down the bill frequently earned little. As music halls became commercialised, their working hours and pay worsened, and this culminated in the Music Hall Strike of 1907.