Grand Guignol

Short sensational shows, in vogue in Paris in the late 19th-c, which depict violent crimes in a style designed to shock and titillate. Guignol was originally a puppet in the French marionette theatre, the French eqivalent of the British Punch and the German Hanswurst or Kasperle. Performances may still be seen in the small theatres of Montmartre.

For other uses, see Grand Guignol (disambiguation).

The Grand Guignol (Grahn Geen-YOL) was a theatre (Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol) in the Pigalle area of Paris (at 20 bis, rue Chaptal), which, from its opening in 1897 to its closing in 1962, specialized in the most naturalistic grisly horror shows.

Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol was small and intimate, seating no more than 300 people.

The principal playwright of the Grand Guignol was André de Lorde who wrote at least one hundred plays for the venue between the years 1901 and 1926.

Grand Guignol flourished briefly in London in the early 1920s under the direction of Jose Levy.

The Grand Guignol theatre closed its doors in 1962, unable to compete with motion pictures.

The Grand Guignol theatre was recreated as Théâtre des Vampires (on a sound stage) in 1994 for the film of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire.

The best-known modern production in this style is the Stephen Sondheim musical "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," which debuted on Broadway in 1979 starring Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou. In 2005, a revival production of this gruesome story about a barber who gives extra clean shaves was staged on Broadway with Patti Lupone and Michael Cerveris.