| Blackbirds of 1928 | |
|---|---|
 Title page of Broadway program | |
| Music | Jimmy McHugh |
| Lyrics | Dorothy Fields |
| Basis | musical revue |
| Productions | 1928 Broadway |
Blackbirds of 1928 was a hit Broadway musical revue[1] that starred Adelaide Hall, Bill Bojangles Robinson, Tim Moore and Aida Ward, with music by Jimmy McHugh and lyrics by Dorothy Fields. It contained the hit songs "Diga Diga Do", the duo's first hit, "I Can't Give You Anything But Love", "Bandanna Babies" and "I Must Have That Man" all sung by Hall.
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Blackbirds of 1928 was the idea of impresario Lew Leslie, who planned to build the show around Florence Mills in New York City after her success in the hit 1926 show Blackbirds in London. Mills died from tuberculosis in 1927 before rehearsals for the new show had started and Hall was enlisted to replace her.
Blackbirds of 1928 started its life as a floorshow at Les Ambassadeurs Club on 57th Street, New York with songs written by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields.
Fields recalled,[2] "Lew Leslie (the producer) hired us to do a show called Blackbirds of 1928. First, we'd written songs for a show of his in a club called Les Ambassadeurs, where we had Roger Wolfe Kahn (Otto Kahn’s son) and his orchestra, and a lovely lady named Adelaide Hall, who sang".
McHugh recalled, "I knew about Roger Wolfe Kahn wanting to close the club, and I told Lew Leslie, and Lew went up and made arrangements to take it over. This was the start of the show called Blackbirds of 1928. Leslie opened Les Ambassadeurs with the first half of the show". The show was a great hit. McHugh continued, "From there we wrote a second half and we took the show to Atlantic City".
After the tryout in Atlantic City the show opened on Broadway. It was the first Broadway show for which Fields and McHugh had written the entire score and turned out to be a milestone in their respective careers and was one of the most successful shows they were ever connected with.
The show originally opened on January 4, 1928, under the heading The Blackbird Revue at Les Ambassadeurs Nightclub in New York, before transferring in May 1928 to the Liberty Theatre on Broadway,[3] where Lew Leslie changed the shows name to Blackbirds of 1928.[4] The original Broadway production opened at the Liberty Theatre on May 9, 1928, where it ran for 518 performances, becoming the longest running all-black show on Broadway. It was directed by producer Lew Leslie and starred Adelaide Hall,[5] Bill Bojangles Robinson.[6] Aida Ward, Tim Moore, Blue McAllister, the Blackbirds Beauty Chorus and the Famous Blackbirds Orchestra conducted by Felix Weir. Also in the cast were Johnny Hudgins, Eloise C. Uggams, Elisabeth Welch, Mantan Moreland, Cecil Mack, Evelyn Anderson, and Nina Mae McKinney. Orchestral arrangements were by Will Vodery.
On 7 June 1929, the original Broadway production opened at the Moulin Rouge, Paris, France, where it became the hit of the season. In Paris it ran for three months before returning to the US for an American road tour.
Aunt Jemima Stroll
Scene in Jungleland
Bear Cat Jones Last Fight
I Can't Give You Anything But Love
What a Night
Bandanna Babies
Playing According to Hoyle
Three Bad Men From Harlem
Porgy (with apologies to the Theatre Guild and Dorothy and DuBose Heyward)
Finale (part one)
Magnolia's Wedding Day
Earl Tucker Giving His Conception of the Low-Down Dance
Picking a Plot
Doin' the New Low-Down
Getting Married in Harlem
I Must Have That Man
Here Comes My Blackbird
Finale (part two)
In February 1933, Jack Kapp of Brunswick Records assembled an all-star group of Brunswick artists to record the entire score. Issued on six 10" 78s (6516 through 6521), available in an album set (the first such set of popular music from a Broadway show) and also sold individually:
