Shuffle Along and the Quest for Nostalgia: Black Musicals of the 1920s

Abstract

Shuffle Along was the most popular musical of the Harlem Renaissance. It was a Broadway hit and enthusiastically received by both black and white audiences. Opening on 23 May 1921 at the 63rd Street Theatre, it ran for 504 performances, providing considerable profit for its creators and producers. In 1922, it had a successful yearlong tour. Revivals would appear in New York in 1930, and as late as 1952 another updated adaptation appeared, although neither earned the accolades of the original. Described in the program as a “musical melange,” Shuffle Along ,according to theatre historian Allen Woll, “legitimized the black musical,” spawning “a series of imitators” that turned African American musical theatre into a “Broadway staple.”3 Included among these musicals were popular productions such as Put and Take (1921), Strut Miss Lizzie, Plantation Revue, Oh Joy, Liza (1923), Runnin’ Wild (1923; it introduced the Charleston to the stage), The Chocolate Dandled, Dixie to Broadway (1924), Lucky Sambo (1925), Blackbirds of 1926 and 1928 ,and Africana (1927).