A tab show was a short, or tabloid version, of various popular musical comedies performed in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in the early 20th century.

History

The shows were about an hour in length but could be as short as 25 minutes, either way being well suited for traveling or road shows. They had lower costs and fewer logistical complications than major productions. To achieve this, producers typically eliminated much of the dialogue, plot and chorus of the parent, often Broadway production, reduced the scenery to a few flats and platforms that could be easily transported by rail or roadway, and retained only the hit numbers and the principal characters including the love interests and the chief comic. With this shortened format, tab shows did not usually serve as an entertainment form in themselves but were adjuncts for at least three other forms of major entertainment. First, they could be the featured act of the second half of a

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

bill. The substitution of these shows for a portion of vaudeville acts in the early 1900s was described as "far-reaching in its scope" in a ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' article of 23 December 1911. Second, they were often performed in conjunction with

silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

s for a half hour performance either before the film came on, or as a vaudeville act between films.

Show Boat ''Show Boat'' is a musical theatre, musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling 1926 Show Boat (novel), novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the per ...

was one Broadway hit that was reduced to a truncated tab show running in movie theaters in the early 1930s. Third, tab shows were closely related to the early, non-stripper versions of

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

. The girls were 'clean' and did not have bare legs. By the 1920s, "tab show" was sometimes used to avoid the negative, low-brow connotations of "burlesque". There are two suggestions for the origin of the word "tab". It is often said to be derived from "tabloid", as in the short form of a newspaper. Alternatively, it could refer to "tableau" as in the tab style of curtain across the front of a stage, since the curtain and a few pieces of furniture might be the only scenery used by a tab show. As variations on these themes, tab shows occasionally were up to two hours in length and with their lower costs and fewer logistic demands, were a popular alternative to vaudeville acts in the 1910s. Also, while the term "tab show" may have been restricted to the United States, the theme of the vicissitudes of traveling third-rate vaudevillians was presented in 1950 in

Federico Fellini Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. He is known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and ...

's Italian film '' Variety Lights''. It has been described as "wholesome corn".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tab Show Musical theatre Theatre in the United States 20th century in the United States Vaudeville tropes 20th-century theatre