Brooklyn Academy of Music, 1901

This is a playbill for the opening of one of the most famous productions in the long history of the "Tom Show." William A. Brady's staging featured spectacular sets (whose different designers get credit scene-by-scene), electrical effects, and "200" African American singers and dancers in the "Old Fashioned Negro Festival" in Act 4. After a very popular run at the Academy of Music, the show had a successful national tour.

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Billy Rose Theatre Collection
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations