Vaudeville in the Philippines

Bodabil
Stylistic origins	Filipino folk music
Cultural origins	Ethnic groups in the Philippines
Typical instruments	Vocals

Vaudeville in the Philippines, more commonly referred to as Bodabil, was a popular genre of entertainment in the Philippines from the 1910s until the mid-1960s. For decades, it competed with film, radio and television as the dominant form of Filipino mass entertainment. It peaked in popularity during the Japanese occupation in the Philippines from 1941 to 1945. Many of the leading figures of Philippine film in the 20th century, such as Dolphy, Nora Aunor, Leopoldo Salcedo and Rogelio de la Rosa, began their showbusiness careers in bodabil.

Bodabil is an indigenized form of vaudeville, which had been introduced in the Philippines around the turn of the 20th century. It featured a hodgepodge of musical numbers, short-form comedy and dramatic skits, and even magic acts, often staged inside the theaters of Manila. Bodabil proved the vehicle for the popularization of musical trends and musicians, performance genres and performers.

At around the beginning of the American occupation of the Philippines at the turn of the 20th century, stage entertainment in the Philippines was dominated by the Spanish-influenced komedya and the newly emergent zarzuela (or "sarswela"). In order to entertain American troops stationed in the Philippines, vaudeville acts from outside the Philippines were brought in to provide entertainment. As early as 1901, a leading Manila theater, the Teatro Zorilla, would promote some of these visiting vaudeville troupes as "Novelties in Manila".

During these early years of vaudeville in the Philippines, most of the featured entertainers were non-Filipinos. By the middle of the 1910s, a few Filipino performers would begin to appear in vaudeville acts as well. The zarzuela star Atang de la Rama was among the first of such performers, as well as the singer Katy de la Cruz, who first appeared on Manila stages aged 7. The routines they would perform were featured as intermission numbers in between sarswelas. These intermission numbers were sometimes called "jamborees".

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