Boulevard theatre is a theatrical aesthetic that emerged from the boulevards of Paris' old city.Brunet, Brigitte
"Le Théâtre de Boulevard".
''French Studies'' 59: 417–418, July 2005

Origin

Starting from the second half of the 18th century, popular and bourgeois theatre alike took up residence on the

boulevard du Temple The Boulevard du Temple, formerly nicknamed the "Boulevard du Crime", is a thoroughfare in Paris that separates the 3rd arrondissement from the 11th. It runs from the Place de la République to the Place Pasdeloup, and its name refers to the ne ...

, then nicknamed '

boulevard du Crime The Boulevard du Crime was the nickname given in the 19th century to the Boulevard du Temple in Paris because of the many crime melodramas that were shown every night in its many theaters. It is notorious in French history for having lost so many ...

' due to the many

melodrama A modern melodrama is a dramatic work in which the plot, typically sensationalized and for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or exce ...

s and murder stories shown there. In addition to the many attractions on display there – fireworks, pantomime, acrobats, etc. – a so-called 'boulevard' repertoire emerged separate from upper-class theatre. Then, starting from the

Second French Empire The Second French Empire (; officially the French Empire, ), was the 18-year Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 14 January 1852 to 27 October 1870, between the Second and the Third Republic of France. Historians in the 1930 ...

, vaudeville theatre and comédie d'intrigue arrived on the scene.

Style

Boulevard theatre consists mostly of comedies but also dramas. In general, the characters are simply drawn, ordinary or easily understandable. There is a strong tendency to avoid touchy subjects, such as politics and religion. The style is not designed to challenge preconceived ideas or offend. Examples include such sex comedies as '' La Cage aux Folles'' and '' Boeing Boeing''.

Feydeau

Georges Feydeau Georges-Léon-Jules-Marie Feydeau (; 8 December 1862 – 5 June 1921) was a French playwright of the era known as the Belle Époque. He is remembered for his farces, written between 1886 and 1914. Feydeau was born in Paris to middle-class parent ...

, most active between 1890 and 1920, often produced up to the 21st century, is a boulevard theatre playwright whose satiric plays often take aim at adulterers and libertines in a manner not generally seen in British theatre of the same era.

List of playwrights

Marcel Achard Marcel Achard (5 July 1899 – 4 September 1974) was a French playwright and screenwriter whose popular sentimental comedies Garzanti p. 3 maintained his position as a highly recognizable name in his country's theatrical and literary circles ...

* Jean Anouilh * Émile Augier *

Marcel Aymé Marcel Aymé (29 March 1902 – 14 October 1967) was a French novelist and playwright, who also wrote screenplays and works for children. Biography Marcel André Aymé was born in Joigny, in the Burgundy region of France, the youngest of ...

Pierre Barillet Pierre Barillet (24 August 1923 – 8 January 2019) was a French playwright. Biography Barillet was born in Paris, France. Passionate about theatre since childhood, he wrote his first play, ''Les Héritiers'', in 1945 after being a law student ...

Henry Bataille Félix-Henri "Henry" Bataille (4 April 1872, in Nîmes – 2 March 1922, in Rueil-Malmaison) was a French dramatist and poet. His works were popular between 1900 and the start of World War I. Bataille's parents died when he was young. He atten ...

Henry Becque Henry François Becque (9 April 1837 – 12 May 1899), was a French dramatist. He was born in Paris. Life In 1867, he wrote, in imitation of Lord Byron, the libretto for Victorin de Joncières's opera ''Sardanapale'', but his first important work ...

* Tristan Bernard *

Henri Bernstein Henri-Léon-Gustave-Charles Bernstein (20 June 1876 – 27 November 1953) was a French playwright associated with Boulevard theatre. Biography Bernstein was born in Paris. His earliest plays, including ''La Rafale'' (1905), ''Le Voleur'' (1907), ...

Paul Bilhaud Paul Bilhaud (31 December 1854 – 8 January 1933) was a French playwright and librettist. An old friend of the author Alphonse Allais, he is remembered along his friend as a forerunner of minimalism with his painting ''Combat de nègres pendant ...

* Alexandre Bisson * Henri-Frédéric Blanc *

Édouard Bourdet Édouard Bourdet (Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 26 October 1887 – Paris, 17 January 1945) was a 20th-century French playwright. He was married to the poet, Catherine Pozzi; their son was Claude Bourdet. Plays *1910: ''Le Rubicon'' *1912: ''La Cage o ...

* Alexandre Breffort * Marc Camoletti * Isabelle Candelier *

Alfred Capus Alfred Capus (25 November 18581 November 1922) was a French journalist and playwright, who was born in Aix-en-Provence and died in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Biography Son of a lawyer from Marseille, Alfred Capus went to university in Toulon. After fail ...

Gaston Arman de Caillavet Gaston Arman de Caillavet (13 March 1869 – 13 January 1915) was a French playwright. Early life Gaston Arman de Caillavet was born on 13 March 1869. He was the son of Albert Arman de Caillavet and Léontine Lippmann. His maternal grandfa ...

Henri Chivot Henri is an Estonian, Finnish, French, German and Luxembourgish form of the masculine given name Henry. People with this given name ; French noblemen :'' See the ' List of rulers named Henry' for Kings of France named Henri.'' * Henri I de Mon ...

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the su ...

Georges Courteline Georges Courteline born Georges Victor Marcel Moinaux (25 June 1858 – 25 June 1929) was a French dramatist and novelist, a satirist notable for his sharp wit and cynical humor. Biography His family moved from Tours in Indre-et-Loire to Pari ...

* Henry de Gorsse *

Lucien Descaves Lucien Descaves (16 March 1861– 6 September 1949) was a French novelist. Selected works * ''Le Calvaire de Héloïse Pajadou'' (1883) 'Héloïse Pajadou's Calvary.'' Sunny Lou Publishing , 2021 Further reading * * External links * ...

Jacques Deval Jacques Deval (1895–1972) was a French playwright, screenwriter and film director. Novels *''Marie Galante'' (1931) Plays *''Une faible femme''; a comedy in three acts (1920) *''Dans sa candeur naïve''; a comedy in three acts (1926); translate ...

Maurice Donnay Charles Maurice Donnay (12 October 1859 – 31 March 1945) was a French dramatist. Biography Donnay was born of middle-class parents in Paris in 1859. His father was a railway engineer and initially Donnay followed a similar profession, st ...

Françoise Dorin Françoise Dorin (23 January 1928 – 12 January 2018) was a French actor, comedian, novelist, playwright and songwriter. She was most successful in the 1970s, authored about 30 plays and more than 25 books as well as writing songs for various arti ...

Alexandre Dumas, fils Alexandre Dumas (; 27 July 1824 – 27 November 1895) was a French author and playwright, best known for the romantic novel '' La Dame aux Camélias'' (''The Lady of the Camellias''), published in 1848, which was adapted into Giuseppe Verdi's ...

* Robert de Flers *

Edmond Gondinet Edmond Gondinet (7 March 1828 – 19 November 1888) was a French playwright and librettist. This author, nearly forgotten today, produced forty plays of which several were successful. He collaborated with Alphonse Daudet and Eugène Labiche, amo ...

Jean-Pierre Gredy Jean-Pierre Grédy, often anglicised as Gredy (16 August 1920 – 6 February 2022) was a French playwright. Biography After studying literature and law, Grédy entered IDHEC because he wanted to write screenplays. He wrote the screenplay for ...

* Roger Ferdinand * Sacha Guitry *

Thomas-Simon Gueullette Thomas-Simon Gueullette (2 June 1683 – 2 December 1766) was a French lawyer, playwright, scholar and man of letters, who also wrote fairy tales and works on the theatre itself. Life A lawyer at the Châtelet de Paris, then substitute for t ...

Maurice Hennequin Maurice Hennequin (10 December 1863 – 3 September 1926) was a French-naturalized Belgian playwright. Biography A great-grandson of the painter Philippe-Auguste Hennequin, Maurice Hennequin was the son of Alfred Hennequin (1842–1887), hims ...

* Albert Husson *

Eugène Labiche Eugene is a common male given name that comes from the Greek εὐγενής (''eugenēs''), "noble", literally "well-born", from εὖ (''eu''), "well" and γένος (''genos''), "race, stock, kin".Henri Lavedan Henri Léon Emile Lavedan (9 April 1859 – 4 September 1940), French dramatist and man of letters, was born at Orléans, the son of , a well-known Catholic and liberal journalist. Lavedan contributed to various Parisian papers a series of witty ...

* Julien Luchaire * *

Félicien Marceau Félicien Marceau (16 September 1913 – 7 March 2012) was a French novelist, playwright and essayist originally from Belgium. His real name was Louis Carette. He was close to the Hussards right-wing literary movement, which in turn was close t ...

* Georges Mitchell * Marcel Mithois * Maurice Ordonneau *

Marcel Pagnol Marcel Paul Pagnol (; 28 February 1895 – 18 April 1974) was a French novelist, playwright, and filmmaker. Regarded as an auteur, in 1946, he became the first filmmaker elected to the Académie française. Although his work is less fashionabl ...

René Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt René (''born again'' or ''reborn'' in French) is a common first name in French-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and German-speaking countries. It derives from the Latin name Renatus. René is the masculine form of the name ( Renée being the femini ...

Jean Poiret Jean Poiret, born Jean Poiré (17 August 1926 – 14 March 1992), was a French actor, director, and screenwriter. He is primarily known as the author of the original play '' La Cage aux Folles''. Early career Poiret was born in Paris, and f ...

Georges de Porto-Riche Georges de Porto-Riche (20 May 1849, Bordeaux, Gironde – 5 September 1930, Paris) was a French dramatist and novelist. Biography Georges was born into a Jewish-Italian assimilated family. At the age of twenty, his pieces in verse began to b ...

* Claude-André Puget * Jules Romain *

Edmond Rostand Edmond Eugène Alexis Rostand (, , ; 1 April 1868 – 2 December 1918) was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism and is known best for his 1897 play ''Cyrano de Bergerac''. Rostand's romantic plays contrasted with t ...

André Roussin André Roussin, (22 January 1911 – 3 November 1987), was a French playwright. Born in Marseille, he was elected to the Académie française on 12 April 1973. Bibliography *1933 ''Patiences et impatiences'' *1944 ''Am Stram Gram'' *1945 ''U ...

Armand Salacrou Armand Camille Salacrou (9 August 1899 – 23 November 1989) was a French dramatist. Biography He was born in Rouen, but spent most of his childhood at Le Havre, and moved to Paris in 1917. His first works show the influence of the Surrealis ...

Victorien Sardou Victorien Sardou ( , ; 5 September 18318 November 1908) was a French dramatist. He is best remembered today for his development, along with Eugène Scribe, of the well-made play. He also wrote several plays that were made into popular 19th-centur ...

* Jean Sarment *

Eugène Scribe Augustin Eugène Scribe (; 24 December 179120 February 1861) was a French dramatist and librettist. He is known for writing "well-made plays" ("pièces bien faites"), a mainstay of popular theatre for over 100 years, and as the librettist of man ...

* Robert Thomas * Albin Valabrègue *

Francis Veber Francis Paul Veber (born 28 July 1937) is a French film director, screenwriter and producer, and playwright. He has written and directed both French and American films. Nine French-language films with which he has been involved, as either writer ...

Pierre Veber Pierre-Eugène Veber (15 May 1869 – 20 August 1942) was a French playwright and writer. Biography Pierre Veber was the brother of the painter Jean Veber, and the brother-in-law of both René Doumic and Tristan Bernard. His family was quite l ...

Louis Verneuil Louis Jacques Marie Collin du Bocage (14 May 1893 – 3 November 1952), better known by the pen name Louis Verneuil, was a French playwright, screenwriter, and actor. Biography Born in Paris, Verneuil wrote approximately sixty plays and was be ...

Pierre Wolff Pierre Wolff (1 January 1865, in Paris – 1944) was a French playwright. Biography Pierre Wolff was a Jewish writer, who wrote numerous plays, as well as some libretti for operettas. He was the nephew of journalist Albert Wolff. His dramas wer ...

Maurice Yvain Maurice Yvain (12 February 1891 – 27 July 1965) was a French composer noted for his operettas of the 1920s and 1930s. Some of which were written for Mistinguett, at one time the best-paid female entertainer in the world. In the 1930s and 1940s, ...

References

{{Authority control Theatrical genres Theatre in Paris Culture of Paris History of Paris