burlesque

In the 17th and 18th centuries, a form of satirical comedy parodying a particular play or dramatic genre. For example, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera (1728) is a burlesque of 18th-century opera, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Critic (1777) satirizes the sentimentality in contemporary drama.

In the USA from the mid-19th century, ‘burlesque’ referred to a sex-and-comedy show invented by Michael Bennett Leavitt in 1866 with acts including acrobats, singers, and comedians. During the 1920s striptease was introduced in order to counteract the growing popularity of the movies; Gypsy Rose Lee was the most famous stripper. Burlesque was frequently banned in the USA.

burlesque

Another name sometimes used for the burletta in England.