In Dahomey

In Dahomey
George Walker, Adah Overton Walker, and Bert Williams dance
MusicWill Marion Cook
LyricsPaul Laurence Dunbar
BookJesse A. Shipp
Productions1903 Broadway
1904 New York City
Original program from In Dahomey's debut tour.[1]

In Dahomey: A Negro Musical Comedy is a landmark 1903 American musical comedy described by theatre historian Gerald Bordman as "the first full-length musical written and played by blacks to be performed at a major Broadway house."[2] It features music by Will Marion Cook, book by Jesse A. Shipp, and lyrics by poet Paul Laurence Dunbar.[3] It was written by Jesse A. Shipp as a satire on the American Colonization Society's back-to-Africa movement of the earlier nineteenth century.

In Dahomey is regarded as a marquee turning point for African-American representation in vaudeville theater. It opened on February 18, 1903, at the New York Theatre, starring George Walker and Bert Williams, two iconic figures of vaudeville entertainment at the time. The musical ran for 53 completed performances and had two tours in the United States and one tour of the United Kingdom.[4] In total, In Dahomey ran for a combined four years.[5]

  1. ^ Obrecht, Jas. "Jas Obrecht Music Archive." Jas Obrecht Music Archive. N.p., 11 Aug. 2011. Web
  2. ^ Bordman, Gerald, Musical Theatre: A Chronicle (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978), p. 190.
  3. ^ Riis, Thomas L., ed. (1996). The music and scripts of In Dahomey. A-R Editions. ISBN 0-89579-342-3.
  4. ^ Riis, Thomas L., Just Before Jazz: Black Musical Theater in New York, 1890-1915 (London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989), p. 91
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference hatch was invoked but never defined (see the help page).