SOCIOECONOMIC ORGANIZATION OF THE THEATRE …“the Chambermaid.” She possessed a good voice, could sing by ear, and had a saucy way of tossing her head that was half-boyish, half-hoydenish, and wholly captivating.’ When Robertson wrote this in 1864, the soubrette had already been transformed from supporting business to a sexual beauty with star billing; she had been ‘eclipsed by a more vivid, more dazzling, more spangly star— the Burlesque Actress, who now rules the hours between nine and twelve p.m., as sure as legs are legs’.36 Musical ability, either as a singer or ladypianist, was never a disadvantage, and burlesque specialists thrived when they combined a good voice with the preferred physical proportions The re-invented soubrette found plentiful employment in burlesque, pantomime, and (in the last years of the century) musical comedy in the Gaiety style Lines of business decreased in importance as the stock system degenerated, and actresses complained of being locked into a part rather than a type Minimal training, challenge, and artistic development often plagued the young women who found subsistence but not fulfillment by speaking a few lines in the same piece (on tour or in the West End) for weeks, months, or years in succession In 1896, Davenport Adams observed that just as utility walking gents and ladies had disappeared (replaced by boring juveniles and insipid ingenues), singing soubrettes similar to the young Vestris and Mrs Keeley were recruited into musical comedy, not Drama, and refined singers from the Royal College of Music and the Guildhall usually could not act—walking on and off was the extent of their stage ability Sentimental balladists were plentiful, but seriocomic ones were almost all in the music halls.37 This was a consequence of streamlining bills to a single dramatic piece without song, a trend instigated by the Bancrofts ‘Specialties’ preceded and outlasted ‘lines of business’ Specialties are defined by the skills required for employment (acting is presumably a requirement of all) Skill at dancing, for example, was a requirement of burlesque artists, ballet girls, pantomime boys (who were frequently soubrettes or, in the later decades, music hall stars), and aerial figurantes (flying specialists) A good singing voice was required of choristers, minstrels, extras, and sometimes the ballet Competence at singing and dancing was not always a requisite of the chorus, particularly at the Gaiety The Gaiety Girl had not suffered the agony of a long classical ballet training; she may not even have come up through the 23