Choreographic Ghosts: Dance and the Revival of Shuffle Along

As Marvin Carlson (2001) has noted, ghosts haunt the stage in almost any theatrical production. In the case of the 2016 revival of the smash-hit musical Shuffle Along, one ghost in particular stands out: that of the show's original choreographer. Shuffle Along, which featured an all-black creative team and cast, opened on Broadway in May 1921. It ran for 504 performances, generated multiple traveling companies, and sparked the careers of several acclaimed performers. While critics panned the plot about a mayoral race in a fictive southern town, the music and dance made crowds go wild ("Negroes Offer Lively Show" 1921; '"Shuffle Along': Lively Show," 1921). Indeed, stories about the influence of Shuffle Along's dancing inspired acclaimed theater director George C. Wolfe to work on a revival. In an interview with TheatreMania in May 2016, he stated,

I discovered [the show] in increments. I found out Paul Robeson was a replacement in Shuffle Along, and then I learned about Florence Mills … and then at one point I was working on a Josephine Baker project, and then she was in Shuffle Along. And then the thing which sort of went, "Oh, there's something else. This isn't just a musical." That it was the first time a women's dancing chorus existed on Broadway. So I went, "Oh. This is a significant turn in the evolution of the American musical. Why isn't this discussed?

(TheatreMania 2016)

Wolfe repeated this discovery tale about dance's importance at every press opportunity. In an interview with Jeffrey Brown of the PBS NewsHour, Wolfe opened the discussion with, "Shuffle Along was the first time there was a women's dancing, hoofing chorus. And I went, 'Why isn't this discussed?' And then I went, 'So THIS altered the American musical" (Brown 2016). Wolfe's claims were exaggerated, as women's dancing choruses had existed on Broadway prior to 1921. Choreographer Ned Wayburn, for example, had popularized precision dancing in the 1910s and incorporated tap choreography (Stratyner 1996, 51–7). Nevertheless, for audiences accustomed to chorus lines who kicked squarely in time with the music, the syncopation and energy of dancing to jazz music, with its intricate and propulsive rhythms, proved a revelation (Stearns [1968] 1994, 132). As David Savran argues, "Shuffle Along made jazz and tap dancing obligatory on Broadway" (2009, 76). Wolfe's argument that history ignored Shuffle Along was also overstated, as scholars such as Jean and Marshall Stearns, Allen Woll (1989), David Krasner (2002), and Savran had written about the show's importance. Nevertheless, Wolfe was correct in asserting that the innovations of Shuffle Along's dancing chorus had been largely ignored in the popular history of musical theater. The absence of Shuffle Along in the collective public memory of theatergoers is an example of what Brenda Dixon Gottschild calls the "invisibilization" of black contributions to the performing arts (1996, 6). For Wolfe, the discovery of Shuffle Along's impact on Broadway dance proved the pivotal turning point toward his desire to resurrect the show.

Rather than do a straightforward revival, Wolfe transformed Shuffle Along into a backstage musical, rewriting the book entirely. Shuffle Along, or, the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed (shortened to The Making 0/hereafter) was, as its unwieldy title suggested, about the making of Shuffle Along and what happened as a result. Early in the creative process, Wolfe brought in choreographer Savion Glover, with whom he had previously worked on the Broadway shows Jelly's Last Jam (1992) and Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk (1996). Glover called The Making Of "edutainment" (Allen 2016), given that much of the script was given over to didactic lessons to the audience about the lives of four members of the original creative team: writers F. E. Miller and Aubrey Lyles and composers Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle, played by Brian Stokes Mitchell, Billy Porter, Brandon Victor Dixon, and Joshua Henry, respectively. Adhering to the norm that a Broadway musical contain a heterosexual romance, the other main plot point concerned the rumored love...