Other forms: kabuki
Kabuki is an ancient style of Japanese theater in which performers wear elaborate makeup. The movements and gestures of Kabuki actors are very stylized and exaggerated.
The Japanese root of kabuki has two meanings: "song and dance" and also "to do something absurd or outside the norm." This distinctive art form, which combines drama and dance, first appeared about 400 years ago, during Japan's Edo period. While women have occasionally participated in Kabuki, today it's almost always performed by men wearing dramatic costumes and makeup. Kabuki's melodramatic movements led to the word being used figuratively to mean "political posturing" or "political theater."