Eubie! is a revue featuring the jazz and ragtime music of composer Eubie Blake, with lyrics by Noble Sissle, Andy Razaf, Johnny Brandon, F. E. Miller, and Jim Europe. The revue features no book, simply showcasing 23 of Eubie Blake's popular songs. The show was conceived by Julianne Boyd and opened in 1978, receiving positive reviews from Time, Newsweek, Variety, Backstage, and The Today Show.

Production

After seven previews, the Broadway production, opened on September 20, 1978, at the Ambassador Theatre, where it ran for 439 performances. The show was conceived and directed by Julianne Boyd, choreographed by Billy Wilson and Henry LeTang, and costumed by Bernard Johnston. Vicki Carter was the musical director, pianist, and conductor. Lou Gonzalez was the sound designer. Eubie Blake himself was nearly 100 years of age when the show opened. The theater setting was designed to be reminiscent of the 1920s, with "curlicued settings, dancers diving down a staircase in a pie-shaped wedge, a girl in a mantilla with a Spanish rose in her teeth". Many of the songs were from the Blake-Sissle 1921 show Shuffle Along, which follows the story of two friends who are both running for mayor. Among the songs were "Charleston Rag", "Daddy", "My Handyman Ain't Handy No More", "Gee, I Wish I Had Someone to Rock Me in the Cradle of Love", and "There's a Million Little Cupids in the Sky" (from the 1924 Blake-Sissle show The Chocolate Dandies). A few months after the show's opening on Broadway, the tour of Eubie! opened on February 7, 1979, in Baltimore. An original cast recording was produced by Warner Brothers and released on vinyl in 1979, and was later released on CD. The production was filmed in 1981; it was Gregory Hines TV debut. The New York Times noted that the show's pre-Broadway costs ran $236,000 over budget, and that despite the show's 65-week Broadway run, it “never paid backers a penny of their $350,000 investment.”

Songs

** Act I **

1. "Good Night, Angeline" (1917), Europe and Sissle; Shuffle Along
2. "Charleston Rag" (1899)
3. "Shuffle Along" (1921), Sissle; Shuffle Along
4. "In Honeysuckle Time" (1921), Sissle; Shuffle Along
5. "I'm Just Wild About Harry" (1921), Sissle; Shuffle Along
6. "Baltimore Buzz" (1921), Sissle; Shuffle Along
7. "Daddy" (1921), Sissle; Shuffle Along
8. "There's a Million Little Cupids in the Sky" (1924), Sissle; The Chocolate Dandies
9. "I'm a Great Big Baby" (1940), Razaf; Tan Manhattan
10. "My Handy Man Ain't Handy No More" (1930), Razaf; Blackbirds of 1930
11. "Low Down Blues" (1921), Sissle; Shuffle Along
12. "Gee, I Wish I Had Someone to Rock Me in the Cradle of Love" (1919), Sissle
13. "I'm Just Simply Full of Jazz" (1919), Sissle; Shuffle Along ** Act II **
14. "High Steppin' Days" (1921)
15. "Dixie Moon" (1924), Sissle; The Chocolate Dandies
16. "Weary" (1940), Razaf; Tan Manhattan
17. "Roll, Jordan" (1930), Razaf
18. "Memories of You" (1930), Razaf; Blackbirds of 1930
19. "If You've Never Been Vamped by a Brownskin, You've Never Been Vamped at All" (1921), Sissle; Shuffle Along
20. "You Got to Git the Gittin While the Gittin's Good" (1956), Miller
21. "Oriental Blues" (1921), Sissle; Shuffle Along
22. "I'm Craving for That Kind of Love" (1921) Sissle; Shuffle Along
23. "Hot Feet" (1958), Sissle
24. "Good Night, Angeline" (1917), Europe and Sissle; Shuffle Along

Cast

The original cast of Eubie! included an all-black cast consisting of 12 performers and nine musicians. The performers were Ethel Beatty, Terry Burrell, Leslie Dockery, Lynnie Godfrey, Gregory Hines, Maurice Hines, Mel Johnson Jr., Lonnie McNeil, Janet Powell, Marion Ramsey, Alaina Reed, Jeffery V. Thompson. Of these performers Gregory Hines and Lynnie Godfrey were nominated for awards for their performances in Eubie!

Awards and nominations

Original Broadway production