A tab show was a short, or tabloid version, of various popular musical comedies performed in the United States in the early 20th century.
To achieve this, producers typically eliminated much of the dialogue, plot and chorus of the parent, often Broadway production, reduced the scenery to a few flats and platforms that could be easily transported by rail or roadway, and retained only the hit numbers and the principal characters including the love interests and the chief comic.
[3] The substitution of these shows for a portion of vaudeville acts in the early 1900s was described as "far-reaching in its scope" in a Billboard article of 23 December 1911.
[5] As variations on these themes, tab shows occasionally were up to two hours in length and with their lower costs and fewer logistic demands, were a popular alternative to vaudeville acts in the 1910s.
[3] Also, while the term "tab show" may have been restricted to the United States, the theme of the vicissitudes of traveling third-rate vaudevillians was presented in 1950 in Federico Fellini's Italian film Variety Lights.