The Musical That Sparked the Harlem Renaissance: Shuffle Along

The Musical That Sparked the Harlem Renaissance: Shuffle Along

By all accounts, the musical Shuffle Along should have never succeeded. An all Black production prospering in an era of sharp racial division seems unfathomable. Not to mention the fact that the show was deeply in debt and released post-1919 pandemic when many Broadway theaters still had their doors shuttered. It shouldn’t have worked, but it did. It was in a sense, undeniable.  Noble Sissle with members of the original 1921 Shuffle Along cast …