From Broadway To 52nd Street
In Dahomey opened on February 18, 1903 at the New York Theater and ran for 53 performances, then considered a successful run. It was a landmark American musical comedy, in that it was “the first full-length musical written and played by blacks significantly marked the first full-length Black to be staged in an indoors venue at a major Broadway house and the first black musical to have its score published, albeit in England. As one of the most successful musical comedies of its era, it propelled composer Will Marion Cook, lyricist Paul Lawrence Dunbar and leading performers Bert Williams, James Smith and George Sisay to become household names. It was “the first African American show that synthesized successfully the various genres of American musical theatre popular at the beginning of the twentieth century—minstrelsy, vaudeville, comic opera and musical comedy.
Though a jazz standard did not emanate from this musical either, the In Dahomey poster features the famous “cake walk” with the character portrayed by Bert Williams and prompted Percy Grainger to write a highly virtuosic concert “rag” titled In Dahomey (Cakewalk Smasher), that he completed in 1909.
The Story: A tale of a group of Blacks, who, having found a pot of gold, move to Africa and become rulers of Dahomey (present-day Benin).
Broadway History: One of the most influential sources of the American musical was one of its most shameful. The minstrel show got its start in the early nineteenth century when a number of white entertainers, mostly of Irish descent, found they could connect with their more raucous audiences by applying burnt cork to their skin and caricaturing black people in various songs, dances and skits. However, the portrayals by white entertainers created a dialogue that became very fashionable, even though they perpetuated negative stereotypes. Black entertainers knew they didn’t speak like that and formed a troupe, and out of that came comic duos on Broadway like Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles in the 20’s, William Gaxton and Victor Moore in the 30’s. But one man transcended minstrelsy’s denigration of his race and became not only the most popular comedian of his day, but the most famous African American since Frederick Douglass. He was Bert Williams, who denied entrance into Stanford University, worked as a banjo player in saloons and minstrels until he teamed up with George Walker. The team gained fame, which led them to head the cast of “In Dahomey” in 1903, the first full-length musical written and played by blacks performed at a major Broadway house.
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