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The Black Crook is considered to be the first piece of musical theatre that conforms to the modern notion of a "book musical." It opened on September 12, 1866 at Niblo's Garden on Broadway, New York City and ran for a record-breaking 475 performances. The book is by Charles M. Barras (1826 -- 1873), an American playwright. The music is mostly adaptations, but some new songs were composed for the play, notably March of the Amazons by Giuseppe Operti, and You Naughty, Naughty Men, with music by George Bickwell and lyrics by Theodore Kennick.

This production gave America claim to having originated the musical. The Black Crook is considered a prototype of the modern musical in that its popular songs and dances are interspersed throughout a unifying play and performed by the actors. The work was born when a dramatic group and ballet troupe joined forces in New York. In operas, even comic operas with dialogue like The Magic Flute, the principal singers leave the dancing to the ballet troupe. In burlesque, music hall and vaudeville, there is little or no unifying story, just a series of sketches. So The Black Crook was an evolutionary step. The production was a staggering five-and-a-half hours long, but despite its length, it ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and the Post was the first show to call itself a "musical comedy." (Morley, p. 15).

The British production of The Black Crook, which opened at the Alhambra Theatre on December 23, 1872, was an opera-bouffe version based on the same French source material, with new music by Frederic Clay and Georges Jacobi. The author, Harry Paulton, starred as Dandelion, opposite the comedienne Kate Santley, who had appeared in the 1871-72 Broadway revival.

The play is set in 1600 in the Harz Mountains of Germany.

Act 1:

• Early in the Morning ..... Carline
• Naughty, Naughty Man .... Carline

Act 2:

• Flow On, Silver Stream ....... Stalacta
• (The) Power of Love ....... Stalacta

• Spread A Little Happiness by Sheridan Morley, New York: Thames and Hudson, 1987
• New Complete Book of the American Musical Theatre by David Ewen, 1970
• Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography edited by James Grant Wilson, John Fiske and Stanley L. Klos, 1999

• Information about the Broadway productions
• History of the Musical Stage 1860s: The Black Crook
• Information about NY and London productions
• Company producing the first revival since 1896 this March in New York City