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Dixie to Broadway / Florence Mills [theatrical performance]

Title

Dixie to Broadway [Theatrical Performance]

Performers

Mills, Florence

weinglass, Dewey

Rector, Eddie

Nit, Johnny

Thompson, U.S. "Slow Kid"

Covan, Willie

Published/Created

1924-10-29

Genre

Theatrical Performance

Venue

Broadhurst Theater

Abstract

A musical revue in two acts, 24 scenes. Entire production conceived and staged by Lew Leslie; a black revue, is remembered wistfully as enchanting Florence Mill's last major New York appearance before her untimely death. Her singing, dancing and "native grotesqueries" stopped the show in "Jungle Nights in Dixieland." The black performers gave imitations of white favorites such as George M. Cohan, Gallagher and Shean and Eva Tanguay. Dance styles included eccentric, legomania, Russian, tap.

Eddie Rector is said to have introduced a new traveling time step routine in "Bambalina." Pete Nugent first saw Rector's Bambalina in this production.

Plantation Steppers in (Act I Scene 4) ""Put Your Old Bandana On" and "A Few Steps in Front of the Curtain"; Johnny Nit in "Prisoners Up-to-date"; Willie Covan with B. Jones and C. Walker in "If My Dream Came True" First Episode:"Georgia Cohans";

U.S. Thompson with L. Keene, D. Small, R. Love, Brown and W. DeMott in (Act 2) "If My Dreams Came True" Third Episode: Gallagher & Shean;

Johnny Nit in act 2 Fifth Episode with D. Whalen in "George Walker." Thompson and
Covan in Act II Scene 9 "Dance Specialty."

Opened 29 October 1924 at the Broadhurst Theatre and closed 3 January 1925 after 77 performances. (Norton 1924.37).

Source

Bordman, Gerald: American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle. New York: Oxford University Press (1992).

Norton Anthology of Drama: Norton Anthology of Drama: Nineteenth Century to the Present (Vol. 2). W.W. Norton & Company (2009).

Last Updated: 12-16-2015