| The Hot Mikado | |
|---|---|
 Poster for The Hot Mikado | |
| Book | Mike Todd |
| Basis | Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado |
| Productions | 1939 Broadway 1939 New York World's Fair |
The Hot Mikado was a musical theatre adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan's 1885 comic opera The Mikado with an African-American cast. It was first produced by Mike Todd on Broadway in 1939. It starred Bill "Bojangles" Robinson in the title role, with musical arrangements by Charles L. Cooke and direction by Hassard Short.
Mike Todd produced The Hot Mikado after the Federal Theatre Project turned down his offer to manage the WPA production of The Swing Mikado (another all-black adaptation of The Mikado). [1] [2] Todd's adaptation was jazzier than The Swing Mikado and had a "full-voiced, star-studded cast to back up its sass." [1] [3] It follows both the story line of The Mikado and the spectacle of the original and was noted for its wild costuming. [2] "Rosa Brown's outfit, a winged dress with train and a gigantic hat, weighed thirty-five pounds." [1] The spectacle and jazzed-up score received enthusiastic reviews and drew audiences; "critic George Jean Nathan presented it as the 'best all-around musical show', named Nat Karson 'the season’s best costumer', and hailed two performers, Rosa Brown as 'best blues singer' and, to no one's surprise, Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson as 'best hoofer.'" [1] [4]
The musical was first produced at the Broadhurst Theatre on West 44th Street from March 23, 1939, to June 3, 1939, running for 85 performances. The original cast included Bill "Bojangles" Robinson as The Mikado; Frances Brock as Pitti-Sing; Rosa Brown as Katisha; Maurice Ellis as Pooh-Bah; Eddie Green as Ko-Ko; Rosetta LeNoire as Peep-Bo; James A. Lilliard as Pish-Tush; Bob Parrish as Nanki-Poo; Gwendolyn Reyde as Yum-Yum; Freddie Robinson as Messenger Boy; and Vincent Shields as Red Cap. The orchestrations were arranged by Charles L. Cooke, and the production was directed by Hassard Short. Choreography was by Truly McGee. [5] Sets and costumes were designed by Nat Karson (1908–1954). [5] [6]
Thirteen days after The Hot Mikado opened at the Broadhurst, The Swing Mikado – which had been running in New York since March 1, 1939, at the New Yorker Theatre on West 54th Street (modern site of Studio 54) – moved right across the street to the 44th Street Theatre. [7] According to The New York Times :
Todd fought back by hanging a show banner from the side of the Sardi Building – obliterating his rival's marquee from the view of anyone walking east on the block – and then, after the 85th performance, pulled an ace from his sleeve. He sold the show to the World's Fair, where it played through the summer – four times a day, seven days a week – at a price scale (40¢ to 90¢) with which The Swing Mikado could not compete. [8]
The 1939–1940 New York World's Fair production of The Hot Mikado lasted for two seasons and was reportedly one of the most popular attractions at the fair. [4] [9] The show was produced on a large scale there, employing 150 actors. [10] [11]
A summer-stock revival, including Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, produced by Cheryl Crawford, played for one week in 1941 at the Maplewood Theater, in Maplewood, New Jersey. [1]
In the 1980s, disappointed that they could not find much of the script and arrangements for The Hot Mikado, writer David H. Bell and musician Rob Bowman created a new jazzy adaptation, Hot Mikado , that has been produced regularly since 1986. [10] [12]
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations. It opened on 14 March 1885, in London, where it ran at the Savoy Theatre for 672 performances, the second-longest run for any work of musical theatre and one of the longest runs of any theatre piece up to that time. By the end of 1885, it was estimated that, in Europe and America, at least 150 companies were producing the opera.
Bill Robinson, nicknamed Bojangles, was an American tap dancer, actor, and singer, the best known and the most highly paid African-American entertainer in the United States during the first half of the 20th century. His long career mirrored changes in American entertainment tastes and technology. His career began in the age of minstrel shows and moved to vaudeville, Broadway theatre, the recording industry, Hollywood films, radio, and television.
Hinton Battle is an American actor, singer, dancer, and dance instructor. He has won three Tony Awards, all in the category of Featured Actor in a Musical. He was the first to portray the Scarecrow in the stage version of The Wiz.
The Swing Mikado is a musical theatre adaptation, in two acts, of Gilbert and Sullivan's 1885 comic opera, The Mikado, with music arranged by Gentry Warden. It featured a setting transposed from Japan to a tropical island. The show was first staged by an all-black company in Chicago, Illinois, in 1938. Later that year, it transferred to Broadway. Other changes from the original work included the re-scoring of five of the musical numbers in "swing" style, the insertion of popular dance sequences including The Truck and the Cakewalk, and the rewriting of some of the dialogue in an attempt at black dialect. Other than that, the original dialogue and score of 1885 were used.
Rosetta LeNoire was an American stage, film, and television actress. She was known to contemporary audiences for her work in television. She had regular roles on such series as Gimme a Break! and Amen, and is particularly known for her role as Estelle "Mother" Winslow on Family Matters. In 1999, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
Michael Todd was an American theater and film producer, celebrated for his 1956 Around the World in 80 Days, which won an Academy Award for Best Picture. Actress Elizabeth Taylor was his third wife. Todd was the third of Taylor's seven husbands, and the only one whom Taylor did not divorce - Todd died in a private plane accident a year after their marriage. He was the driving force behind the development of the eponymous Todd-AO widescreen film format.
African-American musical theater includes late 19th and early 20th century musical theater productions by African Americans in New York City and Chicago. Actors from troupes such as the Lafayette Players also crossed over into film. The Pekin Theatre in Chicago was a popular and influential venue.
Hot Mikado is a musical comedy, based on Gilbert and Sullivan's 1885 comic opera The Mikado, adapted by David H. Bell and Rob Bowman. After researching the 1939 Broadway musical, The Hot Mikado, and being disappointed at the amount of surviving material that they could find, Bell and Bowman created a new adaptation, Hot Mikado. "Not much remains, however, of the 1939 show’s African-American emphasis, save the cool hipster style which even then was beginning to be eagerly pre-empted by Americans of every ethnicity."
The Broadhurst Theatre is a Broadway theater at 235 West 44th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1917, the theater was designed by Herbert J. Krapp and was built for the Shubert brothers. The Broadhurst Theatre is named for British-American theatrical producer George Broadhurst, who leased the theater before its opening. It has 1,218 seats across two levels and is operated by The Shubert Organization. Both the facade and the auditorium interior are New York City landmarks.
Out of This World is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter, and the book by Dwight Taylor and Reginald Lawrence. The show, an adaptation of Plautus's comedy Amphitryon, first opened on Broadway in 1950.
Henry Martyn Blossom, Jr. was an American writer, playwright, novelist, opera librettist, and lyricist. He first gained wide attention for his second novel, Checkers: A Hard Luck Story (1896), which was successfully adapted by Blossom into a 1903 Broadway play, Checkers. It was Blossom's first stage work and his first critical success in the theatre. The play in turn was adapted by others creatives into two silent films, one in 1913 and the other in 1919, and the play was the basis for the 1920 Broadway musical Honey Girl. Checkers was soon followed by Blossom's first critical success as a lyricist, the comic opera The Yankee Consul (1903), on which he collaborated with fellow Saint Louis resident and composer Alfred G. Robyn. This work was also adapted into a silent film in 1921. He later collaborated with Robyn again; writing the book and lyrics for their 1912 musical All for the Ladies.
Something for the Boys is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and a book by Herbert Fields and Dorothy Fields. Produced by Mike Todd, the show opened on Broadway in 1943 and starred Ethel Merman in her fifth Cole Porter musical.
The Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, Illinois is a respected Chicago area regional theatre. Attached to the Marriott Lincolnshire Resort, the theatre produces an average of five musicals each year, presented in the round, as well as productions aimed at younger audiences. A small, live orchestra provides accompaniment.
Banjo Eyes is a musical based on the play Three Men on a Horse by John Cecil Holm and George Abbott. It has a book by Joseph Quinlan and Izzy Ellinson, music by Vernon Duke, and lyrics by John La Touche and Harold Adamson.
Carol Brice was an American contralto. Born in Sedalia, North Carolina, she studied at Palmer Memorial Institute and later at Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama, where she received a Bachelor of Music in 1939. She continued her studies at the Juilliard School of Music from 1939 to 1943. She attracted considerable attention for her role in a 1939 production of The Hot Mikado at the New York World's Fair, where she worked with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. Brice made her recital debut in 1943, that year becoming the first African-American to win the Walter Naumburg Award. Her concerts often featured the piano accompaniment of her brother, Jonathan Brice. In 1945 she taught briefly at Black Mountain College.
The Mikado is a 1967 British musical film adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan's 1885 comic opera of the same name. The film was directed by Stuart Burge and was a slightly edited adaptation of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company's production of The Mikado and used all D'Oyly Carte singers.
The Cotton Club Boys were African American chorus line entertainers who, from 1934, performed class act dance routines in musical revues produced by the Cotton Club until 1940, when the club closed, then as part of Cab Calloway's revue on tour through 1942.
Memphis Bound is a 1945 American musical based on the Gilbert and Sullivan opera H.M.S. Pinafore. The score was adapted and augmented by Don Walker and Clay Warnick, with a libretto credited to Albert Barker and Sally Benson, "with gratitude to W. S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan." The original production starred an all-black cast including Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Avon Long, Billy Daniels, Ada Brown, and Sheila Guyse.
Make Mine Manhattan is a 1948 Broadway revue with music by Richard Lewine, lyrics by Hassard Short, and sketches by Arnold Horwitt and produced by Joseph Hyman.
Here's Howe is a musical in two acts with music by Roger Wolfe Kahn and Joseph Meyer and lyrics by Irving Caesar. The swing music standard "Crazy Rhythm" was written for this show. The work's musical book was written by Fred Thompson and Paul Gerard Smith. The musical is set mainly in Boston, Massachusetts at the Tredwell Motor Company where the play's central characters work; but with additional scenes in Havana, Cuba when the characters take a trip abroad.
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