Rang Tang | |
---|---|
Music | Ford Dabney |
Lyrics | Joseph H. Trent |
Book | Kaj Gynt |
Premiere | July 12, 1927: Royale Theater, Broadway – 119 performances (finished at the Majestic Theatre) |
Rang Tang is a musical[1] that premiered July 12, 1927, on Broadway at the Royale Theater and ran for 119 performances, including a 14-week overrun, during which, the production moved September 12, 1927, to the Majestic – finishing October 24, 1927. It was acclaimed as one of the most successful black musical revues of the latter 1920s, and owed much to a star-laden cast headlined by Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles.[2] The book — in 2 acts and 12 scenes (2 scenes added later) — is by Kaj Gynt; the lyrics are by Joseph H. Trent; the music is composed by Ford Dabney, who tailored some of the songs for Mae Barnes and Evelyn Preer; the score and post-production music was published by Leo Feist; all copyrighted in 1927 and copyrights renewed in 1954.[i][a][I][II]
The production premiered 1 month and 22 days after the world's first solo transatlantic flight – from Roosevelt Field, Mineola, Long Island, to Le Bourget Aerodrome, Paris, by Charles Lindbergh.[3][4] The musical title, Rang Tang, is slang for orangutan.
Sam Peck (Miller) and Steve Jenkins (Lyles) are two debt-ridden Jimtown[Note 1] barbers who flee their creditors, steal an airplane, and, in the spirit of Charles Lindbergh, embark on another, further, albeit non-solo, first transatlantic non-stop flight from America to Africa in search of treasure. Toward the end of their destination, however, while in flight, the plane begins to malfunction and the wings fall off. Following a safe emergency splash landing in the sea near Madagascar, they meet (i) the Queen of Sheba (Josephine Hall), (ii) the King of Madagascar (Daniel L. Haynes), and (iii) a Zulu tribe. Peck and Jenkins become involved in series of comedic misadventures with natives and fierce animals in the forests, jungles, and deserts – staged as a mythical, exotic, and, at times, terrifying native land. They find a buried treasure, return to the U.S., and arrive at a Harlem cabaret, where they celebrate in grand style their new status as two of the richest men in the world.[5][A][6]
After closing on Broadway, Rang Tang opened in
In an informal survey of integrated casts in the 1927 Broadway season, Pittsburgh Courier reporter Floyd J. Calvin (1902–1939) wrote:
Among the white shows that have taken in colored actors are Oscar Hammerstein's Golden Dawn (1927), about 30, with William C. Elkins (né William Calvin Elkins; 1872–1954)[E] in charge of the chorus; Florenz Ziegfeld's Show Boat, about 45, with Jules Bledsoe in the lead; David Belasco's Lulu Belle (1926), about 60 with Edna Thomas and others; In Abraham's Bosom (1926), about 18; Sidewalks of New York (1927), about 8; Porgy (1927), 52; Rang Tang, 80.