“The genuine nigger show, the extravagant nigger show was the show to me which had no peer” ~ Mark Twain. This quote from Mark Twain shows the importance of African American’s to American Musical Theatre. From the start of Minstrelsy with white men using black face impersonating negro culture as they called it, to the musical Shuffle Along, to Showboat African American’s played a pivotal role in the development and history of American Musical Theatre. African American Culture and Actors changed the history of American Musical Theatre and helped transform it in to the unique art that it is today.
The influence of African American’s on American Musical Theatre began with the rise of Minstrelsy. In the beginning White actors would use burnt cork to darken their complexion also known as blackface. Minstrelsy used the stereotypes and poor language generally associated with black slaves for entertainment purposes. This type of theatre used twingy twangy music and lyrics to form what were referred to as “coon songs”. Audiences flocked to watch these Minstrel shows. These shows had three parts to them. The first part was the Minstrel Line which consisted of Comedians, Singers and Dancers which stared an Interlocutor who was a white man or an actor in white face and End men who were black…show more content… This play was a major stepping stone in the advancement of African Americans in American Musical Theatre. This play and book was created by Sissle and Blake; their career was short but had a major impact on African American’s in musical theatre. The play received great reviews on review states: "Shuffle Along was a milestone in the development of the black musical, and it became the model by which all black musicals were judged until well into the 1930s." The next major step to improve the station of African American’s in American Musical Theatre came with the inception of Showboat, one of the most applauded musicals of all
