Shuffle Along
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| Shuffle Along | |
| Music | Eubie Blake |
|---|---|
| Lyrics | Noble Sissle |
| Book | F. E. Miller Aubrey Lyles Paul Gerard Smith |
| Productions | 1921 Broadway 1933 Broadway revival 1952 Broadway revival |
Shuffle Along was the first major African American hit musical. Written by Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles, with music and lyrics by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake, the musical premiered on 23 May 1921 on Broadway and ran for 504 performances.
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[edit] Plot
There was a slip of a plot involving a mayoral race in "Jim Town" but it was essentially a revue showcasing songs by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake. Judged by contemporary standards, much of Shuffle Along would seem offensive. Each of the leading male characters was out to swindle the other, and the show closed with one character explaining that the lighter the skin, the more desirable an African American woman was.
[edit] Performers
- Florence Mills (lead)
- Adelaide Hall
- Paul Robeson
- Josephine Baker (chorus)
- William Grant Still (orchestra)
- Hall Johnson (orchestra)
[edit] Songs
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[edit] Historical Effect
According to the Harlem chronicler James Weldon Johnson, the 1921 musical revue Shuffle Along marked a breakthrough for the African-American musical performer and made musical theatre history. This revue legitimized the African-American musical, proving to producers and managers that audiences would pay to see African-American talent on Broadway.
The musical brought black actors back to Broadway after a 10-year absence during a time when the prominent black actors and producers of the day had retired and/or passed away. Shuffle Along also brought black audiences to the orchestra rather than being relegated to the balcony, and featured the first sophisticated African-American love story. Moreover, Shuffle Along laid the foundation for public acceptance of African-American performers in other than burlesque roles.
The impact of Shuffle Along rippled through Broadway, with nine African-American musicals opening between 1921 and 1924. For the next few years, black theatre would pioneer several "firsts." In 1928, the first edition of Lew Leslie's Blackbirds featured Bill "Bojanles" Robinson as the first black dance star on Broadway. In 1929, Harlem, a drama by Wallace Thurman and William Rapp, introduced the Slow Drag, the first African-American social dance to reach Broadway.
As scholar James Haskins noted, Shuffle Along "started a whole new era for blacks on Broadway, as well as a whole new era for blacks in all creative fields." Loften Mitchell, author of Black Drama: The Story of the American Negro in the Theatre, credits Shuffle Along with launching the Harlem Renaissance.
[edit] Attempted Revivals
- Road versions toured successfully throughout the country up to 1924.
- In 1932, the show was revived at the Mansfield Theatre but closed after seventeen performances.
- In 1933 Blake, Sissle, Miller, and Lyles reunited but the production was not met with critical success.
- A 1952 revival, starring Sissle and Blake and choreographed by Henry LeTang, was also unsuccessful.
[edit] Trivia
President Harry Truman chose the Shuffle Along song "I'm Just Wild About Harry" for his campaign anthem.
