When Broadway Was Black: The Triumphant Story of the All-Black Musical that Changed the World by Caseen Gaines

Review of When Broadway Was Black: The Triumphant Story of the All-Black Musical that Changed the World by Caseen Gaines

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When Broadway was Black by Caseen Gaines (2023). Published by Sourcebooks.

There are some books that appear to you at just the right moment in your life, and When Broadway Was Black is one of those for me. I had never heard of this book in my life until one day I opened my Libby account in search of a new book to keep me entertained for the next few days.

I was endlessly scrolling on Libby, as nothing was truly calling out to me, when I found a longer audiobook: it was this book specifically. The title is what caught my attention immediately, as theater history and Broadway are two things that I’m very interested in overall, and POC are people often let out of these narratives.

I also just love a good story about the 1920s and the culture that thrived in the period directly after World War I, so I checked the book out immediately. Good thing no one else had staked their claim yet! It took me about two weeks to get through this audiobook, as I pretty much savored it throughout my hold time.

Let’s get into the review! I don’t want to be rambling too much.

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The story of the musical Shuffle Along and the people who helped get it to this point.

This is a book that goes in chronological order, so before we get to the meat that exploded popular culture, inspiring some of the biggest figures of the Harlem Renaissance and Harlem culture through the 1940s, we have to go back in time to before World War I.

When the war broke out, a lot of Black Americans ended up enlisting and became disillusioned abroad. They saw that they were fighting for the rights of people in Europe, when they themselves did not have the same rights in their home country. They also saw they were treated better by the Europeans than their white American counterparts, leading to even more motivation upon returning from the war.

One of the great stories that came out of World War I was a musician group that was all-Black and sent to Europe. We first learn of composers Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake, as well as the comedians Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles. The composers specifically were involved with musicians in the war, which gained great acclaim when they toured throughout war zones.

Their fame spread back to the States, and when they returned, the military band would tour throughout the country, with many different problems stemming from segregration laws. This was the beginning of the collaboration between Black creatives, and Sissle and Blake would form Shuffle Along, which would head to Broadway in 1921.

One such cast member in the chorus line was Josephine Baker, who was just getting her start and would be recognized by people even though she did not have a leading role. Shuffle Along would become one of the most popular and talked about musical of its time, with many people scrambling to go see it.

Gaines goes deeper into the impacts of Shuffle Along, which would inspire the likes of Langston Hughes to go to Columbia University and become the great poet and writer he is known for being today. It also started Baker’s long career, even as she headed to Europe when a little older.

One of the more interesting parts of this book to me is how Gaines contextualizes the musical and its makers in the period they worked within. The war is just one historical framework to look at everything through: the impacts of poverty and racism are another angle.

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Overall Thoughts

I am truly so happy that I stumbled upon this book when I did, as I thought that it was such a brilliant book. I had never read of Gaines’ work before this, which meant that I was going to be dedicatedly reading their work until the end of time from this point onwards.

Anyways, I felt like I learned so much from this. I had no idea about Shuffle Along or its impacts, and there were a ton of other small, fascinating facts like how Broadway theaters would be closed in the summer because of how stifling hot it was in there. No one could sit through a show in that.

Go pick this one up if you’re interested in Black cultural history or theater history. I think it’s worth it!

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