If ever there was a person who liked, supported and championed Black Theater and the contributions of Black artists on Broadway, it was the late Michael D. Dinwiddie, the curator of a completely breathtaking exhibition which just lately opened at Lincoln Heart Performing Arts Library, “Syncopated Levels: Black Disruptions to the Nice White Means.” Dinwiddie was a playwright, a NYU Theater professor on the Gallatin College of Individualized Examine, and composer, and his exhibit traces the roots of Black theater contributions from as early as The African Grove Theatre, which opened in 1821. Because the curator, Dinwiddie shares the historical past of the theater in a video and reveals on a map precisely the place the historic theater was situated in Manhattan.
This good, dazzling exhibition traces African American creativity on Broadway throughout all time intervals as much as the current, marvelously highlighting the syncopated rhythms of Black composers, writers, performers, and different creatives. It was a mission Dinwiddie was invited to curate 5 years in the past by Lincoln Heart Performing Arts curator Doug Reside, and one they developed intently collectively.
The timeline of Dinwiddie’s exhibition is meticulously crafted and inclusive. It consists of Minstrelsy, 1900-1920, with posters from productions together with “Shuffle Alongside” that adorn the wall. Each decade is roofed, by means of movies from performances, manufacturing pictures and reproduced posters. There are photos of creatives like Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle. There are 1930 “blackface” photographs of Josephine Baker in “Bamville.” The Forties exhibit reveals the Nicholas Brothers performing in black and white movies. There are interviews with present and previous theater makers. Within the 1950 exhibit, there are posters from “Home of Flowers” starring Pearl Bailey, together with manufacturing pictures. Nineteen Sixties: Poster of Sammy Davis Jr. in “Golden Boy.” Seventies: a Leslie Uggams poster for “Hallelujah Child.”
Linda Armstrong photographs
Movies play with scenes from “Carry In Da Noise/Carry In Da Funk,” “The Wiz,” and “Timbuktu” with Eartha Kitt. There are posters from “Raisin.” Within the Nineteen Eighties: a poster from “The Faucet Dance Child,” scene pictures from the unique “Dreamgirls” and “Sarafina.” Nineties: “Jelly’s Final Jam” scenes on video. 2000s: a “Passing Unusual” scene. 2010s: a “Hamilton” scene, “The Colour Purple” musical revival (2015) scene. There are scenes from “Holler If You Hear Me,” and Audra in “Gypsy” Poster. Alton Fitzgerald White has an interview operating on the scene. There’s memorabilia just like the jacket from “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and posters from many Black Broadway reveals.
One other part of the exhibit options a big display displaying scenes from six Black Broadway musicals concurrently, with the reveals rotating all through. Guests also can work together with a jukebox to play music. One space is devoted to the historical past, expertise, and power of George C. Wolfe’s Public Theatre, with movies from productions akin to “The Wild Occasion,” “Caroline, or Change,” and “Herald ‘Da Noise/Herald ‘Da Funk,” alongside posters. Unique costumes from productions together with “A Unusual Loop” are on show, and honoring “The Wiz,” there are posters, scene photographs, and the unique costume Andre De Shields wore as The Wizard. Strolling by means of the exhibit, which attracts on tons of of things from the Library’s Billy Rose Theatre Division archives, is each empowering and life-affirming.
All through the planning levels, Dinwiddie labored intently with an advisory panel that included Caseen Gaines, Michael McElroy, A.J. Muhammad, Arminda Thomas, and Ben West, with help from Britt Dixon. McElroy shared, “Michael, a few 12 months in the past, invited a bunch of us to come back collectively and be each eyes and ears and bounce concepts off of, to see the place the gaps had been, the place had been the issues we must always contemplate placing in. So we got here collectively. My main contribution was the interview part, selecting the completely different artists to interview and the inquiries to ask, to guarantee that in the long run you get this concept, that what the title ‘Syncopated Levels: Black Disruptions to the Nice White Means,’ what it meant to every of those artists of various generations, with completely different efficiency backgrounds — actors, administrators, stage managers, choreographers — in order that was my principal contribution. Additionally simply issues and saying we’re lacking that individual. And Doug, the curator right here, was actually nice about saying, ‘okay, let’s get that. All of us sort of labored to help what Michael’s imaginative and prescient was, however to additionally say who’s going to put in writing this, who’s going to take over this, who’s going to take the lead on that — it was great. I interviewed seven folks, amongst them Kecia Lewis, Alton Fitzgerald White, Aisha Jackson, Ayodele Casel, Lisa Daybreak Cave, and Lizan Mitchell.”
What I’ve talked about right here is barely a small fraction of what this exhibition comprises. It’ll in all probability take a number of visits to the exhibition to understand the magnitude of what’s on show — the unimaginable, a lot wanted acknowledgment of Black creativity and its contribution to Broadway. I can’t attempt to title all the folks within the business who’re interviewed for this exhibition, I’ll simply point out two: Andre De Shields and Woodie King Jr.
It’s price making many journeys to this exhibition earlier than it concludes Feb. 21, 2026. That is an exhibition to go to to guarantee that our historical past on Broadway will not be underplayed. For extra details about the exhibition go to The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Explores the Historical past of Black Musical Theater in a Giant-Scale Exhibition at nypl.org. This exhibit is a vividly shifting tribute to the legacy of the late, great, good, Michael Dinwiddie.
