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The Black Crook

Shows · The Black Crook

The Black Crook is a work of musical theatre first produced in New York City with great success in 1866. Many theatre writers have cautiously identified The Black Crook as the first popular piece that conforms to the modern notion of a musical.

Opened
1866
Performances
474
Type
Musical
Era
Origins
Music: Thomas BakerLyrics: Theodore KennickBook: Charles M. Barras

Productions3 on Broadway

1866 Original Theatre not recorded. · William Wheatley 474 performances
1870 Niblos Garden Revival. December 12, 1870 122 performances
1871 Niblos Garden Revival. December 18, 1871 71 performances

Every Broadway staging held in broadway-data, sourced to IBDB. West End runs are not yet held.

Licensing not confirmed

Rights We have not been able to confirm the publisher.

Read from the licensor's own pages and catalogues. Rights move, and an empty row means we have not confirmed a publisher, not that the show cannot be licensed.

In the literature46 passages

He takes for his starting point The Black Crook — staged in 1866 and usually accepted as the first Broadway musical — a farouche extravaganza which for the first time combined dancing and singing with an underlying plot and dialogue (a form of entertainment which could recently have been seen in London’s Drury Lane in… book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-seventh-edition-stanley-green-cary-ginell#p5

Broadway Musicals Show by Show is a combination history, guide, fact book, and photograph album of the most memorable productions presented both on and off Broadway from The Black Crook in 1866 to Big River in 1985. book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-seventh-edition-stanley-green-cary-ginell#p7

American plays embellished with songs were being offered in New York as early as Colonial days, but The Black Crook was the first long-running musical hit, with a record run that was not overtaken until Adonis established a new mark in the late 1880’s. book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-seventh-edition-stanley-green-cary-ginell#p14

From then on, plays embellished with songs became a major attraction for seekers of theatrical entertainment along the Great White Way. book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-green-stanley-green-kay-5th-ed-rev-and-updated-by#p21

The Black Crookwas the first long-running musical hit, with a record run that was not overtaken until Adonis established a new mark in the late 1880’s. book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-green-stanley-green-kay-5th-ed-rev-and-updated-by#p27

Bonfanti, Marie Black Crook, The, 3 Boniface, George Black Crook, The, 3 book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-green-stanley-green-kay-5th-ed-rev-and-updated-by#p353

Passages naming this show, found by keyword across 178 books. Where this show turns up in the literature, not curated trivia about it.

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