The Black Crook
| The Black Crook | |
|---|---|
Finale of The Black Crook
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| Music |
Thomas Baker Giuseppe Operti George Bickwell |
| Lyrics | Theodore Kennick |
| Book | Charles M. Barras |
| Productions | 1866 Broadway 1870 Broadway revival 1872 Broadway revival |
The Black Crook is often considered to be the first piece of musical theatre that conforms to the modern notion of a "book musical". The book is by Charles M. Barras (1826–1873), an American playwright. The music is mostly adaptations, but some new songs were composed for the piece, notably "March of the Amazons" by Giuseppe Operti, and "You Naughty, Naughty Men", with music by George Bickwell and lyrics by Theodore Kennick.
It opened on September 12, 1866 at the 3,200-seat Niblo's Garden on Broadway, New York City and ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. It was then toured extensively for decades and revived on Broadway in 1870–71, 1871–72 and many more times after that. This production gave America claim to having originated the musical. The Black Crook is considered a prototype of the modern musical in that its popular songs and dances are interspersed throughout a unifying play and performed by the actors.
The British production of The Black Crook, which opened at the Alhambra Theatre on December 23, 1872, was an opera bouffe version based on the same French source material, with new music by Frederic Clay and Georges Jacobi. The musical was also produced in 1882 in Birmingham, Alabama. A silent film version of The Black Crook was produced in 1916. It is the only screen version of the show.
The Black Crook was born in 1866 when a dramatic group and Parisian ballet troupe joined forces in New York. Henry C. Jarrett and Harry Palmer had hired the ballet troupe to perform at the New York Academy of Music but the troupe was left without an engagement when a fire destroyed the Academy. They approached William Wheatley, the manager at Niblo's Garden, to see if he could use them. Wheatley offered them a chance to participate in a Faustian musical "spectacle" by combining their ballet forces (and the spectacular stage machinery they had brought over from Europe) with Charles M. Barras's melodrama.
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