Footnotes

"A major contribution to the culture."—Brian Jay Jones, New York Times bestselling author of Jim Henson: The Biography

The triumphant story of the all-Black Broadway musical that changed the world forever

Opening night was going better than any of them could have expected, but the performers knew the rapturous applause was obscuring the truth: there was a good chance someone was going to get killed at any moment, and it was likely to be one of them. When the curtain rose on Shuffle Along in 1921, the first all-Black musical to succeed on Broadway, no one was sure if America was ready for a show featuring nuanced, thoughtful portrayals of Black characters—and the potential fallout was terrifying. But from the first jazzy, syncopated beats of composers Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake's inspired musical numbers, New York audiences fell head over heels for Shuffle Along, which was unlike anything they had seen before.

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