Must Go To The "Real" Theater  

What are we up to in retirement?

The All American Melodrama Theater 6/26/2010

Did You Know? - As of 2015, the theater is now CLOSED for business... We really miss going there with the family and having good old fashioned entertainment.  We hope they find another venue. (CLOSED As Of 2015)

 


Turn around as see the Queen Mary!

Did You Know? - The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work which exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions.


Nearby in Long Beach

It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them. It is also used in scholarly and historical musical contexts to refer to dramas of the 18th and 19th centuries in which orchestral music or song was used to accompany the action. The term originated from the early 19th-century French word mélodrame, which in turn is derived from Greek melos (music) and French drame (drama).

The All American Melodrama Theater provides "Old Fashioned", live entertainment fun for the whole family! Ragtime piano tunes fill the air of our Victorian style theatre, that features comfortable seats and cozy cabaret tables. The delightfuly themed theatre is located in Shoreline Village just across the bay from the Queen Mary and the Aquarium of the Pacific. The All American Melodrama and Music Hall was really a load of fun and we plan to bring friends back.

Melodrama theater June 2010
We arrive at 4:15 for the 4:30 performance

Pauline
Remember this?

Did you know? - The Victorian stage melodrama featured a limited number of stock characters: the hero, the villain, the heroine, an aged parent and a comic man engaged in a sensational plot featuring themes of love and murder. Often the good but not very clever hero is duped by a scheming villain, who has eyes on the damsel in distress until fate intervenes at the end to ensure the triumph of good over evil.

The sensation novels of the 1860s and 1870s were fertile material for melodramatic adaptations. A notable example of this genre is Lady Audley's Secret by Elizabeth Braddon adapted, in two different versions, by George Roberts and C.H. Hazlewood.

In film, the term 'melodrama' or more colloquially 'meller'[12] denotes a subgenre of the drama film which generally depends on stereotyped character development, interaction, and highly emotional themes. Melodramatic films tend to use plots that appeal to the heightened emotions of the audience, often dealing with "crises of human emotion, failed romance or friendship, strained familial situations, tragedy, illness, neuroses, or emotional and physical hardship". Film critics sometimes use the term "pejoratively to connote an unrealistic, pathos-filled, campy tale of romance or domestic situations with stereotypical characters (often including a central female character) that would directly appeal to feminine audiences.

Let's Go In!

Melodrama theater June 2010
The actors also are the staff of the theater... Great group!

Bedlam In The Ballpark
The All American Melodrama take you out to the ballpark as we present our comedic, melodramatic tribute to "The National Past Time." Cheer for the Sludgeville Sluggers as they try to win the big game before nefarious villain, Basil Batcrack, tears down the ballpark. Fun for the whole family! Plus every show features our musical, vaudeville revue, "Extra Innings: Baseball's Greatest Hits"

Melodrama theater June 2010
Fun for all!

Let The Fun Begin

Melodrama theater June 2010
The Coach and Penny Less get a message from Mom

Did you know? - In sport as well as theater, a utility player is one who can play several positions/rolls competently, a sort of jack of all trades.

Melodrama theater June 2010
Don't ask; Don't tell

Did you know? - Hubba Hubba - Used to express approval, pleasure, or excitement. This is very old slang used by a guy when he sees a pretty girl.

Melodrama theater June 2010
She (Carmen Gettit) charms the men right out of their contracts

Melodrama theater June 2010
Boo Hiss Boo... Basic is being naughty

Half Time Break... A View Out The Door

Melodrama theater June 2010
We took a short 10 minute walk

Melodrama theater June 2010
Pictures with the coach

Melodrama theater June 2010

Melodrama theater June 2010
Beautiful day!

Part Two - The Plot Thickens

Melodrama theater June 2010

Melodrama theater June 2010

Melodrama theater June 2010
Sneaking the documents from Batrack's safe

Melodrama theater June 2010
Ah ha! Carmen has the ledger

Melodrama theater June 2010
Penny Less and the ballpark are saved

Melodrama theater June 2010
Curses

Melodrama theater June 2010
The Olio is coming... Stick around!

Time To Stretch The Legs

Melodrama theater June 2010

The Olio Begins

Did you know? - An olio is a Vaudeville number, short dance or song performed as musical encore after the performance of a dramatic play. It can also be defined as a collection of various artistic or literary works or musical pieces used between acts in a burlesque or minstrel show. This was common on showboats in the 19th and early 20th century.

Did you know? - Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. Types of acts included popular and classical musicians, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, female and male impersonators, acrobats, illustrated songs, jugglers, one-act plays or scenes from plays, athletes, lecturing celebrities, minstrels, and movies. Vaudeville developed from many sources, including the concert saloon, minstrelsy, freak shows, dime museums, and literary burlesque. Called "the heart of American show business," vaudeville was one of the most popular types of entertainment in North America for several decades.

Melodrama theater June 2010
To top off the evening, every Melodrama theater show includes an Olio: "a little something extra." At the All American Melodrama Theater our Olios are vaudeville revues full of song, dance, comedy and lots of audience participation.

Melodrama theater June 2010
Great fun!

Did you know? - The origin of the term is obscure, but is often explained as being derived from the expression voix de ville, or "voice of the city." Another plausible etymology finds origins in the French Vau de Vire, a valley in Normandy noted for its style of satirical songs with topical themes. The term vaudeville, referring specifically to North American variety entertainment, came into common usage after 1871 with the formation of Sargent's Great Vaudeville Company of Louisville, Kentucky. It had little, if anything, to do with the Comédie en vaudeville of the French theatre.