Black Crook, The

Black Crook, The (1866), a melodramatic musical spectacle by Charles M. Barras (book), Thomas Baker and others (music, lyrics). [Niblo's Garden, 475 perf.] The “Arch Fiend” Zamiel ( E. B. Holmes) induces Hertzog ( C. H. Morton), the Black Crook, to deliver a human soul into his power once a year on New Year's Eve. Hoping to snare the painter Rudolf ( G. C. Boniface), who has been unjustly imprisoned, Hertzog frees him and promises to lead him to a large cache of gold. On his way to the treasure Rudolf saves a dove's life. The dove is really Stalacta ( Annie Kemp Bowler), Queen of the Golden Realm. She warns him of his danger, removes him to fairyland, and helps him win Amina ( Rose Morton). Notable songs: March of the Amazons; You Naughty, Naughty Men; The Broadway, Opera and Bowery Crawl. Allegedly mounted at a cost of $50,000, the musical was the most successful Broadway play up to its time and the first to run for more than a year. Theatrical legend states the production came about when a French ballet troupe, scheduled to perform at the Academy of Music, was deprived of a stage after the theatre burned down. The troupe was hastily combined with a dramatic company about to present Barras's metaphysical melodrama. A 1954 musical, The Girl in Pink Tights, retold this fanciful tale. But more recent research by Stanley Green, Kurt Ganzl, and others, has called this story into question, and it becomes clear that The Black Crook's origins were more a matter of shrewd business arrangements among producers William Wheatley, Henry Palmer, and Henry C. Jarrett. No small part of the musical's fame came from its long line of choryphees (chorus girls) in what were euphemistically called pink tights, but were actually flesh colored. Companies quickly sprang up all across the country, and the spectacle was revived regularly throughout the rest of the century. Christopher Morley and Agnes de Mille staged a popular reconstruction in 1929. Barras (1826–73) was a Philadelphia‐born actor‐playwright. Most of his works were written‐to‐order vehicles for contemporary favorites. Clara Morris paints a vivid picture of him in her autobiography.