It's an interesting subject. I did a study on Kabuki last year. Lots of fun. It was more lively than the traditional Noh, which the upperclass preferred. Noh was much slower, it could take a while to cross to the other side of the stage.

Kabuki began with women, who were then offered up at the end of the show. The Shogun demanded they only have men after that.

Great characters like Goemon were entirely told by Kabuki. The scrolls were showing the actors, which then became the videogame series.

Kabuki also influenced TV and movies in Japan. All that over acting in kids shows is from the theater.

Movies and TV shows in the US had a similar thing. The Marx Bros -fellow Germans by the way-, 3 stooges, Laurel and Hardy and more were theater acts for the lowest common denominator. Dracula, Frankenstein and other monsters were stage plays based on the books.

Things like operas and great theater were not shown. The upper class did not want them involved with such riff Raff.

Throughout the study I thought about technology, and other things that moved forward. In the Bible it talks about how a rich man had a dinner and none of his well to do friends came to it. So he grabbed the robber and underclass, then demanded they wear fine clothing. Christ used it as an allegory for something else, but I couldn't help thinking about how true it was in these cases. Our society is led by the whores and miscreants, because the upper class don't want to be involved.