Black and Blue (musical)

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For other uses, see Black and Blue (disambiguation).

Black and Blue is a musical revue celebrating the black culture of dance and music in Paris between World War I and World War II.

Based on an idea by Mel Howard and conceived by Hector Orezzoli and Caludio Segovia, it consists of songs by artists such as W. C. Handy, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Eubie Blake, and Big Maybelle and skits peppered with bits of bawdy humor.

It first was presented at the Chatelet Theatre in Paris in 1985. After thirty-two previews, the Broadway production, directed by Orezzoli and Segovia and choreographed by Henry LeTang, Cholly Atkins, Frankie Manning, and Fayard Nicholas, opened on January 26, 1989 at the Minskoff Theatre, where it ran for 829 performances. The cast of forty-one singers, dancers, and musicians included Ruth Brown, Linda Hopkins, Savion Glover, Claude Williams, Roland Hanna, Grady Tate, Jimmy Slyde, and Bunny Briggs.

The score included "St. Louis Blues," "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," "In a Sentimental Mood," "Am I Blue?," "Stompin' at the Savoy," and the title tune.

The original cast recording won a Grammy Award.

Following the Broadway engagement, Howard took Black and Blue on two European tours, performing at such venues as The Chatelet Theater in Paris, The Thalia in Hamburg, Theater des Westens in Berlin, The Deutsches Theater in Munich, and The Carre Theater in Amsterdam.

A television production directed by Robert Altman aired on PBS.