Eubie!

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Musical revue

title: "Eubie!" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1978-musicals", "broadway-musicals", "revues"] description: "Musical revue" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eubie!" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Musical revue ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox Musical"]

Field	Value
name	Eubie!
image	Eubie Musical Logo.png
music	Eubie Blake
lyrics	Noble Sissle
Andy Razaf
Johnny Brandon
F. E. Miller
Jim Europe
book	Revue
productions	1978 Broadway
::

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

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

::data[format=table]

Year	Award	Category	Nominee
1979	Tony Award	Best Original Score	Eubie Blake, Noble Sissle, Andy Razafe, F.E. Miller, Johnny Brandon and Jim Europe
Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical	Gregory Hines
Best Choreography	Billy Wilson and Henry LeTang
Drama Desk Award	Outstanding Musical
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical	Lynnie Godfrey
Outstanding Choreography	Billy Wilson and Henry LeTang
Theatre World Award	Gregory Hines
::

References

Al Rose, ''Eubie Blake'' (New York: Schirmer Books, 1979), 166–167.
Hobe, "Legitimate: Shows on Broadway – Eubie", ''Variety'' 292/8 (1978), 96.
Sherry Eaker, "Eubie!" ''Backstage'' 39/20 (1979), 50.
Gerald Bordman. ''American Musical Review'' (New York: University Oxford Press, 1985), 159–160.
Kerr, Walter. [https://www.nytimes.com/1978/11/06/archives/arts-theater.html "Arts, mini-review"], ''The New York Times'', November 6, 1978, p. 54.
Kroll, Jack. "Wild About Eubie", ''Newsweek'', October 2, 1978.
League, The Broadway. "The Chocolate Dandies – Broadway Musical – Original {{!}} IBDB".
Salmans, Sandra. “Why Investors in Broadway Hits are Often Losers.” New York Times, 22 November 1981, D1.
Al Rose, Eubie Blake (New York: Schirmer Books, 1979), 168-173.

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