From Broadway To 52nd Street
Do-Re-Mi opened at the St. James on December 26, 1960 and starred Phil Silvers, Nancy Walker and John Reardon. Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green composed the music and lyrics for the musical that ran 400 performances and gave the world the jazz standard Make Someone Happy.
The Story: A raucous satire on the music industry – with emphasis on the jukebox industry. Hubie Cram, a would-be big shot, induces three retired slot machine mobsters to muscle in on the jukebox racket. Though this does not make him the fawned upon tycoon he has always dreamed of becoming, Hubie does succeed in turning a waitress into a singing star.
Broadway History: The history of Black theater dates back to the turn of the century between 1890 and 1910 when the Black musical comedy was booming with the development of the Black musical theater. In 1903 composer Bert Williams and George Walker wrote “In Dahomey” and is considered the first all Black show on Broadway. The show returned a 400% profit to producers shattering the myth that Black shows were unprofitable. This was followed by a string of shows such as Shuffle Along, Showboat, How Come, The Chocolate Dandies, Africana and Keep Shufflin’. The rise of Black actors would make prominent stars of Ethel Waters, Pearl Bailey, Leslie Uggams, Bill Robinson, Josephine Baker, John Bubbles, Diahann Carroll, Ruby Dee and Sammy Davis Jr.
Over the following decades such shows as Porgy and Bess would come to Broadway along with Purlie, Raisin, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Golden Boy, Dreamgirls that would ultimately culminate in the establishment of the August Wilson Theatre, continuing the legacy of nearly a century of Black theater and inclusion in the Broadway lexicon.
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