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25-483: The Hyers Sisters , Anna Madah (ca. 1855 – 1929) and Emma Louise (ca. 1857 – 1901), were singers and pioneers of black musical theater . With Joseph Bradford and Pauline Hopkins , the Hyers Sisters produced the "first full-fledged musical plays... in which African Americans themselves comment on the plight of the slaves and the relief of Emancipation without the disguises of minstrel comedy." Their first play

50-524: A "modernization" of Gilbert and Sullivan ’s classic operetta, The Mikado . This was followed by The Hot Mikado (1939). Another modern version of the classics was Oscar Hammerstein II 's Broadway musical Carmen Jones (1943), a version of Georges Bizet ’s Carmen with an all-black cast. In the late 20th and 21st century, predominantly Black musical theatre shows became more common. Notable shows include Once on This Island , The Color Purple , MJ

75-470: A hiatus. In 1915 ragtime composer Scott Joplin attempted to stage an opera Treemonisha in Harlem but the show was a financial and critical failure and Joplin was ruined and retreated into retirement until his death in 1917. In May 1921, the surprising hit Shuffle Along made its way to New York City with almost $ 18,000 in debt. "One of the most popular black shows of the 1920s; began to tinker with

100-526: A new direction, back to Africa . George Walker died during the run of Bandanna Land and his wife Ada Overton Walker substituted for him during the final week of the run. By 1911, Ernest Hogan , Bob Cole, and George Walker had died. Will Marion Cook and the Johnson brothers, James and J. Rosamond, had pursued new careers and Bert Williams moved to the Ziegfeld Follies and black musical theater went into

125-566: Is the most famous black musical of the 1930s. It is called a black musical because of the African American cast, even though neither the music or plot is of the “Negro inspiration” like the creators proclaim. " Porgy and Bess marked the nadir in the history of black musical comedy, symbolizing the end of tradition and experimentation in black musical theater on Broadway". This also led the Works Progress Administration to start

150-567: The Federal Theater Project that established the Negro Unit with programs in 22 cities. This gave a new break to the struggling artists. The Negro Unit avoided musical comedies, but had a few musicals with black cast including Eubie Blake's Swing It , which closed in 1937 and lessened hope for the Federal Theater Project . However, one black musical comedy succeeded and twisted the new realm of musical theater, The Swing Mikado (1937),

175-602: The Lee De Forest Phonofilm sound-on-film process in 1923. These short films are a record of music similar to the work these four men were doing on stage at the time... Rang Tang was premiered July 12, 1927, on Broadway at the Royale Theater and ran for 119 performances, including a 14-week overrun, finishing at the Majestic October 24, 1927. In 1928, white producer and director Lew Leslie staged

200-595: The African Princess written by E. S. Getchell and premiered in 1879, The Underground Railway , by Pauline Hopkins in July 1880, and Hopkin’s stage version of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in March 1880. Additionally, they performed Colored Aristocracy by Hopkins. Overall, they had at least six shows between the late 1870s and 1880s. They set the path for black musical theater and performance in the years that followed. They traveled until

225-744: The Cake Walk , an hour-long sketch that was the first all-black show to play in a prestigious Broadway house, Casino Theatre 's Roof Garden. Cole's A Trip to Coontown was the first full-length New York musical comedy written, directed and performed exclusively by blacks. The approach of the two composers were diametrically opposed: Cole believed that African Americans should try to compete with European Americans by proving their ability to act similarly on- and offstage, while Cook thought African Americans should not imitate European Americans but instead create their own style. Bob Cole and brothers John Rosamond Johnson and James Weldon Johnson focused on elevating

250-597: The Musical , Dreamgirls , The Lion King , Tina: The Tina Turner Musical , Ain't Too Proud , Passing Strange , and The Wiz . Sister Act is led by a Black character while Hairspray features multiple Black characters, ensemble members and a story about integration. Michael R. Jackson 's A Strange Loop won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2020, becoming the first African American musical to win this award. Smart Set Company The Smart Set Company

275-524: The book for Shuffle Along (1921) had met in 1906, and began performing at the "Pekin Theater Stock Company" near Chicago from 1906 to 1909, along with other African American stars such as Harry Lawrence Freeman . In 1921, Miller and Lyles appeared in a short film made in Photokinema , a sound-on-disc process, singing their composition "De Ducks", while Sissle and Blake made three films in

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300-680: The first African American companies to break from the minstrel style performance. They then put together a number of small productions including A Lucky Coon , Sons of Ham , and The Policy Players , but their ultimate goal was to produce and star in their own Broadway musical. So they thought back to the times in San Francisco and produced In Dahomey (1903) alongside Paul Laurence Dunbar , Jesse A. Shipp , and Will Marion Cook. Abyssinia (1906) and Bandanna Land (1908) were also significant parts of Williams and Walker's claim to fame. Their dreams of stardom come to life and they took musicals in

325-649: The first American musicals in the 1870s. Trained opera singers, they toured the United States for 20 years, performing 'comic operas' that broke with minstrel show stereotypes and told stories about slavery and freedom. Another pioneering Black touring group was Sherman H. Dudley 's Smart Set Company , whose musical comedies in the early 1900s bridged the gap between old Minstrel-style stereotypes and more upscale, authentic and self-referential humour. Will Marion Cook and Bob Cole brought black-written musical comedy to Broadway in 1898. Cook's Clorindy, or The Origin of

350-425: The first of a popular series of Blackbirds revues, featuring such talents as singers Adelaide Hall and Aida Ward , dancer extraordinaire Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and top-flight funnyman Tim Moore . Further Blackbirds revues were staged in 1930 with Ethel Waters , Buck and Bubbles , and Flournoy Miller , in 1933 with Edith Wilson , and in 1939 with Lena Horne and Tim Moore. The key to Leslie's success

375-591: The lyrical sophistication of African American songs. Their first collaboration was "Louisiana Lize", a love song written in a new lyrical style that left out the watermelons , razors, and "hot mamas" typical of earlier " coon songs ." Cole and the Johnson brothers went on to create musicals such as The Belle of Bridgeport , The Red Moon (with Joe Jordan ), The Shoo-Fly Regiment , In Newport , Humpty Dumpty , and Sally in Our Alley (featuring Bob Cole's "Under The Bamboo Tree"). Bob Cole's suicide in 1911 ended "one of

400-563: The mid-1880s with their own shows and continued to appear on stage into the 1890s. Though Emma Louise had died, in 1901, Anna Madah continued to travel with a show of John Isham . African American musical theater The African Grove Theatre opened in New York City in 1821. Before the late 1890s, the image portrayed of African-Americans on Broadway was a "secondhand vision of black life created by European-American performers." Stereotyped " coon songs " were popular, and blackface

425-488: The pattern of segregation". The creators of the astronomical point in history are The Dixie Duo, Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake , who met at a party in Baltimore , Maryland in 1915. Their career was brief but successful. " Shuffle Along was a milestone in the development of the black musical, and it became the model by which all black musicals were judged until well into the 1930s." F. E. Miller and Aubrey Lyles , who wrote

450-624: The promising musical comedy teams yet seen on Broadway". Bert Williams and George Walker , called the " Two Real Coons ", found fame in 1896 with a musical farce called The Gold Bug . The duo's performance of the cakewalk was successful. Williams met Walker in San Francisco in 1893, while they played Dahomeyans in an exhibit of the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894 . They played different venues while putting together their act. Williams and Walker were dropped from " Isham's Octoroons ", one of

475-419: The stage from a racial viewpoint" covering "every phase of stagedom." In 1909, the group split into a Northern and Southern Smart Set Company with the latter being managed by Salem Tutt Whitney . Dudley retired from working with The Smart Set in 1912 and worked on building his chain of theaters. After 1917 Dudley devoted himself to producing black musicals, including updated Smart Set productions. The name

500-603: Was Out of Bondage (also known as Out of the Wilderness ). Their father, Samuel B. Hyers, came west to Sacramento, California with their mother, Annie E. Hyers (née Cryer), after the Gold Rush . He made sure his daughters received both piano lessons and vocal training with German professor Hugo Sank and later opera singer Josephine D'Ormy and they performed for private parties before making their professional stage debut on April 22, 1867 at Sacramento’s Metropolitan Theater. Anna

525-603: Was a soprano and Emma a contralto . Under their father’s management, they embarked on their first transcontinental tour in 1871. On August 12, 1871, they performed in Salt Lake City to much acclaim. They were later called "a rare musical treat" by Saint Joseph, Missouri ’s Daily Herald and earned equal praise in Chicago, Cleveland, and New York City. Their tour reached Worcester and Springfield, Massachusetts , as well as New Haven and Providence . They visited Boston, which

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550-590: Was an African American touring revue company fronted by Sherman H. Dudley who took over for Tom McIntosh . Dudley signed a five-year contract in 1904 and was considered the show's "chief fun maker. " Reviews of a performance in Indiana in 1902 refer to singing, dancing and "clever acrobatic work" calling it "the smartest colored comedy in all of America." Their performances, which were not entirely minstrel shows , were often commentaries on race in America "a composite study of

575-472: Was common. Minstrel shows were often performed in early history and were inspired by black music. These shows were first performed by white people who used black face in the 1800s. Many of these performers wore old ripped clothing, some actually stolen from slaves, to “represent” the enslaved African Americans. Along with the clothing, the white performers portrayed black people out to be lazy, thieves, and dumb. The Hyers Sisters have been credited with creating

600-404: Was known to be extremely critical of new acts, and were also well-received, performing in the 1872 World Peace Jubilee which was one of, if not, the first integrated major musical production in the country. The Hyers’ family organized a theater company, where they produced musical dramas starring Anna and Emma, including Out of Bondage , written by Joseph Bradford and premiered in 1876, Urlina,

625-655: Was the exceptional talent he found. “Leslie managed to build his black revues around one or more dynamic performers, who could carry a modest show to success.” Although these productions showcased black talent, they were almost completely created by white writers and composers. In an interview, Leslie made a remarkable claim that “They (white men) understand the colored man better than he does himself. Colored composers excel at spirituals , but their other songs are just 'what' (dialect for 'white') songs with Negro words." George Gershwin 's Porgy and Bess (1935) – starring Will Marion Cook's wife Abbie Mitchell among many others –

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