Revue

A Revue is a theatrical entertainment based around music and sketches or skits either on contemporary news or the venue or base of the theatre company concerned, such as college or medical school.

In part related to music hall as a collection of elements with little to otherwise connect them they also became popular in large mainstream theatres in formats such as the Ziegfeld Follies and early talkies as showcases for their stars or the new medium.

Specialist writers / composers of revues have included Sandy Wilson, Noel Coward and Flanders and Swann.

Revues are often common today as student entertainment, where songs of the day will have new words put to them about the college or courses concerned of a humerous nature. While most comic songs will only be heard within the revue they were written for, sometimes they become more widely known, such as A Transport of Delight about the big red London bus by Flanders and Swan.