Revista porteña: History and Key Facts

The revista porteña (meaning "porteña revue" or "Buenos Aires revue" in Spanish) is a theatrical genre native to Argentina, derived from European revue, which originated in the city of Buenos Aires and dominated the local theatre circuit—concentrated chiefly on Corrientes Avenue—from its emergence in the 1920s until the beginning of its decline in the second half of the 1970s. The Maipo theatre was the most emblematic venue of the genre, known as the "cathedral of the revista porteña", though the El Nacional, the Tabarís, the Astral and the Cómico theatres were also prominent. Its immediate precursor was the revista criolla (lit. "criolla revue", that is, local revue), which emerged in the late 1890s as a local adaptation of the Spanish-style revue. The transformation of the revista criolla into the revista porteña took place from 1922 onward, when the staging of French revue productions—notably that of Madame Rasimi and her Ba-Ta-Clan company, which caused a great impact on the city's audiences and influenced local theatrical producers. The French productions introduced the revue format with scantily clad vedettes and a production style based on luxury, visual splendour and onstage sensuality, deeply shaping the development of the revista porteña.

Over the following decades, the revista porteña experienced an unprecedented boom, at one point premiering more musical productions than reference theatre cities such as New York. Major local figures emerged—actors, comedians, singers and vedettes—who consolidated a style characterised by the absence of a linear plot, favouring instead a succession of sketches, monologues, musical numbers and lavish choreography. The period between 1940 and 1960 is considered the "Golden Age" of the revista porteña. During those years the genre reached its greatest popularity and consolidated its distinctive stylistic features, although the era was also marked by political censorship, particularly during the dictatorship that followed the 1943 coup and during the Peronist government, which restricted political satire and artistic expression, pushing the revue toward more conservative themes or toward the use of foreign elements. Despite this, the revista porteña retained its vitality and adapted, with figures such as Nélida Roca—nicknamed the "Venus of Corrientes Street"—and theatrical impresarios such as Carlos A. Petit, who drove the production and dissemination of the genre.

In the following decades, the revista porteña faced new challenges: competition from sound cinema, television and other theatrical genres such as the café-concert. In the 1960s and 1970s, although it began to lose popularity, it continued to produce hits and to renew itself with the emergence of new vedettes, including Nélida Lobato and Moria Casán. During this period the revista porteña also opened its doors to sexual diversity, notably including transvestite vedettes such as Vanessa Show, a pioneer of travesti-trans representation in the genre. The social and cultural changes of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, together with economic crisis and the transformation of forms of entertainment, led to a gradual decline of the revista porteña. Today it is considered a genre that has practically disappeared, surviving only sporadically or in transformed forms, influenced by other styles of musical theatre and television comedy. Since 2013 it has been included on the official list of Cultural Heritage of the city, alongside emblems of Buenos Aires culture such as tango or fileteado.

Source and attribution

Text excerpted from Revista porteña by Wikipedia contributors, available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. The extract is abridged and formatting has been adjusted; the adapted text on this page is shared under the same licence. Revision history.