Pantomime traditions, especially "Peter Pan", are performed quite often, and a few American theatre companies produce traditional British-style pantomime as well as American adaptations of the form. According to Professor Russell A. Peck of the University of Rochester, the earliest pantomime productions in the US were "Cinderella" pantomime productions in New York in March 1808, New York again in August 1808, Philadelphia in 1824, and Baltimore in 1839. A production at Olympic Theatre in New York of "Humpty Dumpty" ran for at least 943 performances between 1868 and 1873, (one source says 1,200 performances), becoming the longest-running pantomime in history. In
Pantomime of the music and shout out phrases to the performers. Pantomime has a long theatrical history in Western culture dating back to classical theatre. It developed partly from the 16th century commedia dell'arte tradition of Italy and other European and British stage traditions, such as 17th-century masques and music hall. An important part of the pantomime, until the late 19th century, was the harlequinade. Outside Britain, the word "pantomime" is often understood to mean miming, rather than the theatrical form discussed here. The word pantomime was adopted from the Latin word "pantomimus", which in turn derives from the Greek word