minstrel show

American  

noun

1. a once popular type of stage show featuring comic dialogue, song, and dance in highly conventionalized patterns, performed by a troupe of actors traditionally comprising two end men, a chorus in blackface, and an interlocutor. Developed in the U.S. in the 19th century, this entertainment portrayed negative racial stereotypes and declined in popularity in the 20th century.

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minstrel show British  

noun

1. a theatrical entertainment consisting of songs, dances, comic turns, etc, performed by a troupe of actors wearing black face make-up

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Etymology

Origin of minstrel show

An Americanism dating back to 1865–70

Example Sentences

There were different metrics—say, the number of sheet-music copies pulled from a publisher’s warehouse or the frequency of reprintings or how often it appeared in minstrel shows.

From The Wall Street Journal

These would influence the American musical, but also shaping the genre were homegrown entertainments—the minstrel show, the revues of Florenz Ziegfeld, vaudeville and burlesque.

From The Wall Street Journal

However, the banjo's creation eventually became a blending between West African and European traditions mostly due to minstrel shows in the 1800s.

From Salon

Redd’s father took him to see traveling minstrel shows when he was a boy, and he was particularly struck by the one-legged tap dancer Peg Leg Bates moving to the rhythm of a trap drummer.

From New York Times

The practice has a long, complicated history in theater, stretching from the medieval period to Shakespeare to American minstrel shows.

From Washington Post