"Absorbing..." — The Wall Street Journal Billy Porter, Tony, Grammy, and Emmy Award-winning actor Rachel Chavkin, Tony Award-winning director of Hadestown Adrienne Warren, Tony Award nominee Library Journal Kirkus Reviews Publishers Weekly Booklist Brian Jay Jones, New York Times bestselling author of Jim Henson: The Biography A’Lelia Bundles, New York Times bestselling author of On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker Glen Berger, Emmy Award-winner and author of Song of Spider-Man: The Inside Story of the Most Controversial Musical in Broadway History Palm Beach Daily News Footnotes ” is this: you don’t have to be a Broadway-goer to enjoy it. You don’t ever have to have even seen a play. You can love this lively, sparkling book for no reason but just because." — Bookworm Sez The New York Times The Washington Post
03/01/2021
In this well-researched compilation of behind-the-scenes stories and background, pop culture historian Gaines (Inside Pee-Wee's Playhouse ) celebrates the 100th anniversary of the original staging of the all-Black musical comedy Shuffle Along . The author introduces the four men behind the musical—vocalist Noble Sissle, comedian partners Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles, and conductor/pianist Eubie Blake—and their struggles to keep the show afloat. The quartet were determined to change the narrative of the Black experience in America by presenting Black performers in roles that were nuanced and fully developed. However, the show was also steeped in stereotypes, used blackface, and cast only women who passed the colorist "brown paper bag test." Still, Shuffle Along broke the taboo in American theater against depicting Black romantic love onstage, kick-started the career of a 16-year-old Josephine Baker, and gave us "I'm Just Wild About Harry," which eventually became Harry Truman's campaign song. And despite failures to revive the production owing to its racist tropes and stereotypes, Gaines persuasively argues that these four men shouldn't be relegated to the footnotes of history, as their work resulted in monumental gains for many Black performers. VERDICT Theater buffs and students of Black history will be pleased by this cogent defense of Shuffle Along .—Lisa Henry, Kirkwood P.L., MO
2021-03-17
Journalist and historian of popular culture Gaines offers an animated, well-researched history of the creation, production, and long afterlife of Shuffle Along , a show that burst into the New York entertainment world in 1921 and was revived, in many iterations, as recently as 2016. Central to the story are four Black entertainers: composers and lyricists Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake and comedians Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles. Multitalented and determined, the men managed to transcend the racial prejudice that dominated the entertainment world at a time when Black characters—even when played by Blacks themselves—habitually darkened their skin with burnt cork. “They would cover their faces until they were the color of tar,” Gaines writes, “leaving just enough space for them to paint on a wide mouth with bright red or white exaggerated lips. The look would become complete with a natty wig, tattered clothing, white gloves, on occasion, and a heavy Southern drawl with English so broken, it was hardly intelligible.” While all-Black musicals and vaudeville acts were popular with diverse audiences in the early 1900s, they were characterized by minstrelsy, much to the growing resentment of the Black community. Shuffle Along was revolutionary, featuring “a fast-moving syncopated jazz score with snappy lyrics, beautiful brown dancers, political satire,” and a book that challenged social taboos. Opening at a time of intensified racial violence, particularly directed at Black soldiers returning from World War I, the musical’s success surprised everyone who participated. Gaines recounts in thorough detail the show’s performances, show-stopping songs, critical reception, financial woes and triumphs, and tours and singers, some of whom went on to stardom—e.g., Josephine Baker, who was hired for the chorus and, in 1925, found fame in Paris; and Florence Mills, who became one of the most popular Black entertainers in the world.
A spirited, educative contribution to both theater history and Black history.
Vividly brings a colorful era to life.”
author of Jim Henson: The Biography Brian Jay Jones
A story of humans at once talented, flawed, courageous, blinkered, and visionary…[and] the role African Americans have played and continue to play in stage history.”
Emmy Award–winner and author of Song of Spid Glen Berger
Evocative and illuminating, Footnotes is an excellent addition to the canon of musical theater history.
Author/narrator Caseen Gaines offers this fascinating, well-researched history…[and] delivers first-rate performances of the anecdotes recounted by Black entertainers…Gaines’s narration brings both the period and the people to life.”
A story that is absolutely vital to both the past and future of the theater.”
Tony Award–winning director of Hadestown Rachel Chavkin
Significantly deepens our understanding of one of the key cultural events that launched the Harlem Renaissance.”
author of Self Made A’Lelia Bundles
One hundred years ago, the first all-Black musical, SHUFFLE ALONG, changed the Great White Way forever. Author/narrator Caseen Gaines offers this fascinating, well-researched history of the struggles of Black actors and others who changed the face of Broadway. Gaines delivers first-rate performances of the anecdotes recounted by Black entertainers Noble Sissle, Eubie Blake, Flournoy Miller, and Aubrey Lyles and explains their positive influence on Black culture. In the early 1900s, Black actors were expected to play buffoonish characters in blackface. Sissle, Blake, Flournoy, and Lyles combined their talents to write SHUFFLE ALONG, a political satire in which Black actors portrayed non-stereotypical characters. How would white audiences respond to an all-Black musical? Gaines’s narration brings both the period and the people to life. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
