It is one of the most exciting launches since Tate Modern opened its doors. And — surprise! — it is not in London, and it is neither a converted industrial space, nor a brand new building by some trendy architect. Positively gleaming from an £8 million refurbishment and redevelopment, the Modernist Grade I listed De La Warr Pavilion reopens this weekend in Bexhill-on-Sea as a national centre for contemporary arts. Not only does it look gorgeous, if the inaugural programme — Variety — is any guide, it is also fabulously adventurous.

Variety could not be a more fitting debut for the De La Warr Pavilion, a much-loved seaside venue built in 1935 as an arts centre for the local community. Taking a cue from the variety show, a panoply of artists aims to put a modern spin on the genre.

The term “variety” may give some palpitations — the genre’s reputation for cheesiness kept alive by The Royal Variety Performance and Sunday Night at the London Palladium. However, a fresh and distinctly 21st-century brand of variety is alive and high-kicking its way across the stage. “New vaudeville” may doff its cap to Max Wall but draws inspiration from David Walliams; it’s mixed up, shook up, dramatic, daring and clever.

Contemporary variety has a little something for everybody. Influenced by song and dance, pantomime, comedy, slapstick, burlesque and circus, acts are generally short and sharp, with minimal opportunity for boredom. If you don’t fancy an act, just wait; something completely different will be along shortly.

The De La Warr Pavilion is joining a small but passionate group of theatres dedicated to keeping variety thriving. London’s Hackney Empire does a good job, as does the Grand Theatre, Blackpool. In fact, the Grand has just been named the National Theatre of Variety and from next year the latter will host an archive, annual conference and variety festival.

But it’s on the nightclub scene that vaudeville has rediscovered its cool. Medium Rare in West London and the burlesque extravaganza Whoo-pee Club feature new-style variety with old-fashioned chutzpah. Duckie — the club I host every Saturday night — is a contemporary vaudeville pleasure palace at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in South London. Tatty velvet curtains, Victorian pillars, bare floorboards and a raised stage provide bags of atmosphere. Alongside such luminaries as the Cholmondeleys and the Featherstonehaughs, Kiki and Herb and Ida Barr, new talent gets a share of the limelight.

Variety had its humble beginnings in 18th and 19th-century song taverns and public house “harmonic rooms”. Aspiring singers, comedians and entertainers would hop on an upturned box to perform for gin swillers. Certain inns developed reputations for a high calibre of entertainment — and thus music hall was born. Pedants argue over which was the first music hall in the country, but my money is on the Star in Bolton, which started as a harmonic room in 1832 and swiftly expanded. At the end of the 19th century there were more than 60 music halls in London alone.

The acts varied from lion tamers to medicine men, male impersonators to child singers, high leg-kick champions to Chinese magicians. Funny, rude and risqué, music hall went where traditional theatre didn’t dare.

The Whitebait in Glasgow was the first music hall to hire exclusively female performers. The women on stage were kept in a wire cage. The Alhambra Music Hall in London was shut down in 1870 when a can-can troupe starring “Wiry Sal” scandalised the town with flashes of ruffles and suspenders.

Music halls used other ploys to fill seats. Many had art, waxworks and macabre museum curiosities on display in the foyer, and separate exhibition rooms. Stuffed birds, nude statues and even plaster casts of murderers’ heads could give an edge.

But by 1915 music hall faded; in its stead came the variety shows. Altogether more wholesome, variety acts performed in theatres and auditoriums, and at the seaside too. Crucially, riff-raff were kept away by banning alcohol during the performances. Acts became more refined to reflect the new respectable surroundings — but again fashions would change.

Old-fashioned, out of touch, unfunny, racist, sexist — the worst aspects of music hall and variety are often cited as reasons for its demise. But the real facts are far simpler.

First, music halls suffered in the 1920s when film and radio became popular. Then television hit hard. Today, most people remember variety only from TV: The Good Old Days, Seaside Special and The Royal Variety Performance. By the 1960s the theatres themselves were empty.

So why has variety come back? Variety, “modern music hall” — whatever you call it — harks back to a time when things were just a bit more wholesome. Audiences are reassured and comforted by the familiar format, and excited by the new content.

For performers, variety allows a huge amount of creative freedom. Variety gets instant audience feedback; whether it’s cheers or jeers, performers know pretty quickly whether they’re on to a winner or not.

The Variety season at the De La Warr Pavilion provokes us to be entertained in the new old-fashioned way. The bill includes Gary Stevens and a group of performers re-creating an indoor/outdoor Keystone Kops-style music hall show, plus the seven-strong Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain interpreting variety through the tiniest of Hawaiian-cum-Lancastrian instruments. Heck, they are even hoping for a gig by that celebra-ted cross-dressing local Eddie Izzard. Vaudeville deserves its encore.

Duckie’s Big Saturday Night Seaside Special, part of the Variety season at the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea, is on November 26 (www.dlwp.com 01424 787949)