# Extravaganza

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{{Short description|Elaborate, spectacular, and expensive theatrical production}}
{{Other uses}}
[[Image:Rice & Barton's Big Gaiety Spectacular Extravaganza Co.  - Gaiety Dancers.png|thumb|A poster showing the [chorus girls](/source/chorus_line) of a 1900 extravaganza.]]
An '''extravaganza''' is a literary or musical work (often [musical theatre](/source/musical_theatre)) usually containing elements of [Victorian burlesque](/source/Victorian_burlesque), and [pantomime](/source/pantomime), in a spectacular production and characterized by freedom of style and structure. The term is derived from the Italian word ''stravaganza'', meaning extravagance. It sometimes also has elements of  [music hall](/source/music_hall), cabaret, circus, [revue](/source/revue), variety, [vaudeville](/source/vaudeville) and [mime](/source/mime).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-199143/extravaganza |title=Encyclopædia Britannica online |publisher=Britannica.com |access-date=2014-08-23}}</ref> ''Extravaganza'' came, in the 20th century, to more broadly refer to an elaborate, spectacular, and expensive theatrical production.<ref>{{cite book |author=Ewen, David|title=Panorama of American Popular Music|url=https://archive.org/details/panoramaofameric00ewen|url-access=registration|publisher=Prentice Hall|year=1957}}</ref>

Professor Carolyn Wiliams writes that playwrights, producers and critics have often muddled the distinction between burlesque and extravaganza, but she describes the genre this way: "Sexy yet free of "offensive vulgarity", silly yet intelligent, raucus yet spectacularly beautiful, extravaganza was a relatively "high" form of burlesque, intended for an urbane adult audience."<ref name=Williams>{{cite book| last=Williams| first=Carolyn| year=2010| title=Gilbert and Sullivan: Gender, Genre, Parody| chapter=1: Outmoding Classical Extravaganza, Englishing Opéra Bouffe – ''[Thespis](/source/Thespis_(opera))'' | location=New York| publisher=Columbia University Press| isbn=978-0-231-14804-7}}</ref> She notes that the definition of extravaganza changed during the 19th century, in that a late century extravaganza had a "[transformation scene](/source/transformation_scene)", but earlier it focused on the sexy innuendo and fantasy, often involving fairies, and did not necessarily include a transformation scene.<ref name=Williams/> 19th-century British dramatist, [James Planché](/source/James_Planch%C3%A9), who was known for his extravaganzas, defined the genre as "the whimsical treatment of a poetical subject."<ref>[Planché, James](/source/James_Planch%C3%A9). ''The recollections and reflections of J. R. Planché (Somerset herald): a professional biography'' (1872), Vol. II, p. 43</ref>

In 1881, [Percy Fitzgerald](/source/Percy_Hetherington_Fitzgerald) described the classic transformation scene as follows:  
{{blockquote|First the "gauzes" lift slowly one behind the other – perhaps the most pleasing of all scenic effects – giving glimpses of "the Realms of Bliss", seen behind in a tantalizing fashion. Then is revealed a kind of half-glorified country, clouds and banks, evidently concealing much. Always a sort of pathetic and at the same time exultant [musical] strain rises. ... Now some of the banks begin to part slowly, showing realms of light, with a few divine beings – fairies – rising slowly here and there [in an aerial pyramid]. ... [T]he lights streaming on full, in every colour and from every quarter, in the richest effulgence. [Finally], the most glorious paradise of all will open, revealing the pure [empyrean](/source/empyrean) itself, and some fair spirit aloft in a cloud among the stars, the apex of all. Then, all motion ceases; the work is complete; the fumes of crimson, green and blue fire begin to rise at the wings; the music bursts into a crash of exultation; and, possibly to the general disenchantment, a burly man in a black frock steps out from the side and bows awkwardly. Then to shrill whistle, the first scene of the [harlequinade](/source/harlequinade) closes in, and shuts out the brilliant vision. [These magnificent scenes] are significant of English energy, and cannot be approached in foreign theatres.<ref>[Fitzgerald, Percy](/source/Percy_Hetherington_Fitzgerald). ''The World Behind the Scenes'' (1881), quoted in Russell Jackson, ''Victorian Theatre: The Theatre in its Time'' (Franklin, NY: ''New Amsterdam'', 1994 [first edition 1989]), pp. 193–194</ref>}}

==See also==
*[Spectacle](/source/Spectacle)
*[Victorian burlesque](/source/Victorian_burlesque)

==References==
{{reflist}}

Category:Comedy
Category:Italian words and phrases
Category:Musical theatre
Category:Theatrical genres
Category:Satire
Category:Variety shows

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Extravaganza](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extravaganza) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extravaganza?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.