An Inconvenient Black History of British Musical Theatre - 1900 - 1950

List of contents

Part I Black practitioners and international performance networks
The 1900s in context
1 Will Marion Cook and In Dahomey (1903)
2 Belle Davis, Laura Steer and Cassie Walmer
The 1910s in context
3 Following a year of Black performance in the UK: 1916
4 Will Garland: Black cultural production on a national stage
Part II Black networks of production
The 1920s in context
5 The secret Florence Mills Memorial Concert: January 1928
6 Alberta Hunter and Mabel Mercer
The 1930s in context
7 Clarence ‘Buddy’ Bradley and Clarence Robinson
Part III Anti-racism and anti-imperialism in London
8 Sam Manning, Amy Ashwood Garvey and 1930s anti-colonialism
9 Swing from Calloway to ‘Snakehips’ Johnson
The 1940s in context
10 Calypso and Black resistance
Epilogue

About the author

Based out of New York City & Toronto, Sean Mayes enjoys a varied career internationally as a conductor, music director, orchestrator, arranger, composer, author & educator across North America and Europe, spanning the range of numerous musical styles between Broadway, theatre, opera, classical & pops.
In New York, Mr Mayes serves as a conductor between two Tony Award winning Broadway productions, sharing his time as Assistant Conductor of MJ and Associate Conductor of HADESTOWN.
Internationally, Mr Mayes serves as Musical Supervisor of the Finnish Premiere of COME FROM AWAY, and in Fall 2022, served as Music Director and Conductor of the new musical MANDELA, inspired by the life of Nelson Mandela & co-produced by the Mandela family for production at the Young Vic Theatre in London, UK.
As Music Director for Broadway luminary André De Shields, Mr Mayes was Music Director, Orchestrator & Arranger for An Evening With André De Shields with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2021.
Select recent work includes serving as Composer & Musical Supervisor of the National Tour of Fall On Your Knees, the stage adaptation of the best-selling Canadian novel; Composer for the Stratford Festival's 2023 Mainstage production of King Lear; Music Supervisor of AFROPUNK @ Lincoln Center, Music Supervisor of RENT: In Concert at the Kennedy Center, and Composer & Conductor of Aportia Chryptych, commissioned by the Canadian Opera Company for production in 2024.
As an author, Mr Mayes' writing and scholarship is dedicated towards unpacking systemic issues surrounding representation, having previously published on disproportionately represented Black music directors (Reframing the Musical, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), and the retracing of Black British musical theatre history in An Inconvenient Black History of British Musical Theatre (Bloomsbury, 2021), which was celebrated for release in concert at Wigmore Hall, London, in September 2021.
@maestromayesSarah K. Whitfield is Reader in Musical Theatre at the University of Wolverhampton. Her research focuses on exploring the historiography of musical theatre, and recovering the work that women and minoritised groups have done through archival research and digital humanities. She has published widely on collaborative practice in musical theatre, film musicals, and in queer fan studies. Her most recent books are the edited collection Reframing the Musical: Race, Culture and Identity (2019) and co-authored with her writing partner Sean Mayes, An Inconvenient Black History of British Musical Theatre 1900-1950 (2021).

Summary

A radically urgent intervention, An Inconvenient Black History of British Musical Theatre: 1900 - 1950 uncovers the hidden Black history of this most influential of artforms. Drawing on lost archive material and digitised newspapers from the turn of the century onwards, this exciting story has been re-traced and restored to its rightful place. A vital and significant part of British cultural history between 1900 and 1950, Black performance practice was fundamental to resisting and challenging racism in the UK.

Join Mayes (a Broadway- and Toronto-based Music Director) and Whitfield (a musical theatre historian and researcher) as they take readers on a journey through a historically-inconvenient and brilliant reality that has long been overlooked. Get to know the Black theatre community in London’s Roaring 20s, and hear about the secret Florence Mills memorial concert they held in 1928. Acquaint yourself with Buddy Bradley, Black tap and ballet choreographer, who reshaped dance in British musicals - often to be found at Noël Coward’s apartment for late-night rehearsals, such was Bradley’s importance. Meet Jack Johnson, the first African American Heavyweight Boxing Champion, who toured Britain’s theatres during World War 1 and brought the sounds of Chicago to places like war-weary Dundee. Discover the most prolific Black theatre practitioner you’ve never heard of, William Garland, who worked for 40 years across multiple continents and championed Black British performers. Marvel at performers like cabaret star Mabel Mercer, born in Stafford in 1900, who sang and conducted theatre orchestras across the UK, as well as Black Birmingham comedian Eddie Emerson, who was Garland’s partner for decades.

Many of their names and works have never been included in histories of the British musical - until now.

Foreword

This foundational book makes a radical intervention in established historiographies of in British musical theatre by unpicking and demonstrating how Black performance and creative practice was a significant force in the British musical theatre industry between 1900 and 1950.

Additional text

This necessary, powerfully anti-racist book provides space and a platform for those artists who might otherwise have been forgotten. It serves as a salient reminder of the wealth of Black performers who should not be consigned to history.

Product details

• Authors: Sean Mayes, Sean (music director Mayes, Mayes Sean, Sarah K Whitfield, Sarah K. Whitfield, Sarah K. (University of Wolverhampton Whitfield
• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.09.2021
• EAN: 9781350119635
• ISBN: 978-1-350-11963-5
• No. of pages: 304
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet; PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / General, ART / Performance, Theatre Studies, Performance Art