In 1921, four ambitious Black vaudevillians—songwriters Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle alongside comedians Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles—overcome crippling debt, racial prejudice, and zero financial backing to mount a groundbreaking all-Black Broadway hit.

Formally ambitious to a fault, George C. Wolfe’s interpolation of the 1921 revue welds its original score to a new book about the making of the same show, sprinkling some later-career Sissle/Blake numbers and original libretto contributions on top. The result is as messy as it sounds - a jukebox musical by any other name. Still, you can’t deny its raw firepower, with an impossibly decorated principal cast flanked by Savion Glover’s remarkable tap choreography. Audra and Adrienne are such stars. There are a few moments here that really, really cook - particularly the last big number, “They Won’t Remember You” (which has a professional audio recording on YouTube from the original run, if you’re interested). Feels like exactly the kind of show that belongs at one of these one-nighters. You could never mount a commercial revival of this thing, but in the interest of historical preservation and the caliber of talent involved - highbrow artistic import and all that - I’m glad it’s getting a proshot, and I’m grateful to have been in the house for it.