About this item
"A major contribution to the culture." -- Brian Jay Jones, New York Times bestselling author of Jim Henson: The BiographyThe triumphant story of the all-Black Broadway musical that changed the world foreverOpening 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.
About the Author
Caseen Gaines is the author of Footnotes: The Black Artists Who Rewrote the Rules of the Great White Way, which will be published in May 2021 by Sourcebooks.His previous books include We Don't Need Roads: The Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy (Plume, 2015) , which was featured by NPR, The Hollywood Reporter, Vanity Fair, Entertainment Tonight, People Magazine, and other media outlets worldwide. He is also the author of The Dark Crystal: The Ultimate Visual History (Insight Editions, 2017) , which was produced with the participation of The Jim Henson Company. Gaines's first book, Inside Pee-wee's Playhouse (ECW Press, 2011) , received a Silver Medal at the 2012 Independent Publisher Book Awards. Its follow up, A Christmas Story: Behind the Scenes of a Holiday Classic (ECW Press, 2013) , includes a foreword from Wil Wheaton.He has written for Rolling Stone, The A.V. Club, and Decider, among other publications. He can be found on social media @caseengaines.
