the show must go on
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English
[edit]
Etymology
[edit]Originated in the 19th-century circus industry.
Pronunciation
[edit]Audio (General Australian): (file)
Phrase
[edit]- (literally, theater) Regardless of what happens, whatever show has been planned still has to be staged for the waiting patrons.
- 1990 December 9, Maida Tilchen, “Closer To Near”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 21, page 14:
- Two other very personal issues that Holly discloses are her ongoing struggle to maintain a weight she feels comfortable with, and her virtual breakdown from exhaustion in 1984. Her "the show must go on" martyrdom attitude was painful to read, for her stress-related problems demonstrate the irony that idealistic activists often live exactly the overworked, underpaid life they are hoping to end for everyone.
- (idiomatic) One must finish what one has started; things must continue no matter what.
Translations
[edit]One must finish what one has started.
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