This 2004 Companion examines the world of the Victorian theatre: the audiences, playwrights, actors, and music.

List of illustrations; Notes on contributors; Preface Kerry Powell; Part I. Introduction: Before the curtain Nina Auerbach; Part II. Performance and Context: 1. Actors and acting Joseph W. Donohue Jr.; 2. The show business economy and its discontents Tracy C. Davis; 3. Victorian and Edwardian stagecraft: techniques and issues Russell Jackson; 4. Music for the theatre: style and function in incidental music Michael Pisani; 5. Victorian and Edwardian audiences Jim Davis and Victor Emeljanow; 6. Performing identities: actresses and autobiography Mary Jean Corbett; Part III. Text and Context: 7. Comedy and farce Michael Booth; 8. Encountering melodrama David Mayer; 9. The Music Hall Jacky Bratton; 10. Theatre of the 1890s: Breaking down the barriers Peter Raby; 11. New theatres for a new drama Cary M. Mazer; 12. The fallen woman on stage: maidens, magdalens, and the emancipated female Sos Eltis; 13. Reimagining the theatre: women playwrights of the Victorian and Edwardian period Susan Carlson and Kerry Powell; 14. The East End Theatre Heidi Holder; Index.