The Making of the West End Stage

Jacky Bratton is Professor of Theatre and Cultural History at Royal Holloway, University of London. She is the author of New Readings in Theatre History (2003) and, with Ann Featherstone, The Victorian Clown (2006), which published previously unknown materials by Victorian comedians. In 2010 some of these stories were given a series of Radio 4 readings. She contributes to many radio and TV programmes about Victorian theatre.

• Introduction; Part I. Mapping: 1. Why the West End?; 2. The Era: hierarchies, seriousness and the organ of the profession; 3. Bohemian domesticity: the city of the mind; Part II. Making: 4. Performing the crisis; 5. The shaping of West End management; 6. Showtime; Conclusion; Bibliography.

'Jacky Bratton's monograph provides a revisionist account of the way in which the West End developed as a theatrical centre from 1830 to 1870, breaking with past histories that have been dismissive of the exuberant, iconoclastic, and disruptive nature of what was happening during these years … this is an important book, opening up new ways in which to examine the making of Victorian theatre and full of new insights to be absorbed and sometimes challenged.' Victorian Studies