The first ever musical to take stage was “The Black Crook.” “The Black Crook”, is a musical about a painter named Rodolphe, who made an arrogant bargain with a sorcerer. This sorceress provides souls to the devil each year in order to gain eternal life, because of this the sorcerer earns the name “The Black Crook.”

“The Black Crook,” is a 5-hour long musical, which combines all of; dancing- including European ballet, music, and dramatic storytelling. “The Black Crook” premiered on September 12, 1866, in New York City, and closed on January 3, 1868 after 475 long performances. The musical however was very popular and had frequent broadway revivals that continued through the early 20th centuries. 

“The Black Crook,” was considered America’s first ever broadway musical, because it combined dance, music, and drama into one cohesive form of entertainment. This musical set a new standard for American Musical Theatre, and from then on influenced other Broadway musicals with its groundbreaking establishment. 

After hearing the story line, Junior Raya Purdy says “That’s a weird story line. It sounds like our medieval world history we learned about.” 

Freshman Sophia Addams says “Oh okay, that’s very interesting and different from a lot of musicals I have seen or heard of.” 

Although “The Black Crook” has no present day musical that it resembles, the style of musical is similar to what we now call “Jukebox musicals.” Examples of “Jukebox musicals” are: “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Mamma Mia” and “Wicked”-which is Sophomore Lily Teach’s favorite musical!