Broadway gets another exuberant history lesson in 'Shuffle Along'

NEW YORK — In this season of Hamilton, it's been a tall order for any new Broadway production to rise to the level of an event. But Shuffle Along, Or The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed (* * * ½ out of four) qualifies, and not just for the length of its title.

Like Hamilton, Shuffle Along, which opened Thursday at the Music Box Theatre, is torn from the pages of American history — though its focus is, for most of us, a less familiar chapter. The year 1921 did in fact mark the Broadway debut of Shuffle Along, which according to Playbill Vault played 504 performances at 63rd Street Music Hall.

The creative team was composed of African-American men: Jazz and ragtime composer/pianist Eubie Blake and his writing and vaudeville partner Noble Sissle crafted music and lyrics for the show, which produced the breezy hit I'm Just Wild About Harry.

Flournoy "F.E." Miller and Aubrey Lyles, another vaudeville duo (who performed their comedy act in blackface), wrote the book, and the Shuffle Along cast would include Paul Robeson and Florence Mills (both as replacement performers), with Josephine Baker dancing in a touring production.

The names recruited to appear in this new Shuffle Along, which traces the original musical's unlikely progress and its fallout, are equally impressive. Longtime critical and audience favorites Brian Stokes Mitchell and Audra McDonald are cast as the dapper F.E. and his feisty leading lady, Lottie Gee. Rising stars Joshua Henry and Brandon Victor Dixon respectively play Noble and Eubie, and Aubrey is portrayed by Billy Porter, returning to Broadway after his triumphant turn as Lola in Kinky Boots.

Director George C. Wolfe provides a book that integrates the song and dance numbers into a bigger story — something musicals did not do regularly until years after the first Shuffle Along finished its run. It's nonetheless made clear how groundbreaking the show was — in its jazz-based score, in providing a romantic duet for a black man and woman — and how its creators' prospects were thwarted by both racism and their own conflicting priorities and sensitivities.

The stars, all excellent, provide portraits that are at once recognizably human and lavishly entertaining, from Porter's wry, aspirational Aubrey to Henry's imperious but thin-skinned Noble. McDonald and Dixon have a charming, ultimately bittersweet chemistry relaying the sparks that flew between Shuffle Along's star and its married composer.

The new Shuffle Along also benefits, greatly, from the exuberant gifts of choreographer Savion Glover, who previously teamed with Wolfe on Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring In 'Da Funk and Jelly's Last Jam. Production numbers that channel old-school tap prowess with youthful vivacity evoke the spirit and class with which the artists documented here defied boundaries so many decades ago.

It's important to remember that struggle — and exhilarating, when the tribute burns as brightly as this one.