Play looks at black culture

Six-time Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald is set to star in an upcoming musical based on the 1921 musical “Shuffle Along.” Though this lesser-known musical has a cast of all black characters, in the original cast several white actors wore blackface. Despite the racist nature of blackface, the show’s writers were black themselves and supporters of the NAACP. The show was also a big break for many monumental black performers, such as Josephine Baker, Paul Robeson and Adelaide Hall.

The upcoming musical, “Shuffle Along, Or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed,” will tell the story and explain the context of “Shuffle Along” with an entirely black cast.

The casting speaks volumes for the theater’s progression over the past 95 years. A cast featuring actors in blackface is unthinkable by today’s standards. The all-black cast of the new adaptation highlights the admirable qualities of the original “Shuffle Along” while also exploring the context of its less favorable qualities.

Unlike the race-blind casting in the off-Broadway musical “Hamilton,” it is incredibly important that this musical has an all-black cast considering how prominent race was in its creation. Reclaiming this show and adapting to the standards of modern social mores allows “Shuffle Along” to be examined as a piece of theater, rather than just the blackface show.

“Shuffle Along” was originally important because it incorporated jazz-influenced music into the realm of Broadway musicals and celebrated black culture through a mainstream platform. Through a re-examination of “Shuffle Along,” the musical can finally achieve its goal.

A version of this article appeared in the Thursday, April 9 print edition. Email Joseph C. Myers at [email protected]