Buttons (pantomime) Buttons (pantomime) Buttons is the name of a character in the "Cinderella" pantomime, a male servant of the household who helps Cinderella and loves her, and who is liked and trusted but not loved by her. The character has sometimes been called Pedro. Buttons does not appear in the Disney films. The character first appeared in 1860 at the Strand Theatre, London in a version of the story derived from the opera La Cenerentola by Rossini. Rossini includes a character Dandini as assistant to the Prince, which was also included, and a complementary character for Cinderella, called Buttoni was added
Pantomime that continues in pantomime today. As manager of Drury Lane in the 1870s, Augustus Harris wrote a series of extraordinarily popular pantomimes, focusing on the spectacle of the productions, that pushed this transition by emphasizing comic business in the pantomime opening and grand processionals. By the end of the 19th century, the harlequinade had become merely a brief epilogue to the pantomime, dwindling into a brief display of dancing and acrobatics. It lingered for a few decades longer but finally disappeared, although a few of its comic elements had been incorporated into the pantomime stories. The last harlequinade was played