Black History Month Icons of the Day

Icon of the Day – Wednesday, February 24, 2021 – Henry LeTang

Henry LeTang is an American theatre, film and television choreographer and dance instructor. LeTang is probably best known for the movie “The Cotton Club”. LeTang’s first official credit as a choreographer was the 1952 revival of the iconic revue Shuffle Along. His work continued with such seminal African-American themed shows like Eubie!, Sophisticated Ladies and Black And Blue. In 2015, LeTang was inducted into the International Tap Dance Hall Of Fame.

WATCH the cast of “Sophisticated Ladies” perform on the Tony Awards

LOOK at Playbills from Henry LeTang’s career on Playbill Vault

LISTEN to the original cast album of Black and Blue on Spotify

Each Day in February check back here and on our social media channels we’ll be celebrating an influential Black Musical Theatre Artist.

Icon of the Day – Tuesday, February 23, 2021 – Irene Gandy

Irene Gandy is a Broadway press agent and producer. Gandy started her career in the 1960s as a press agent for the Negro Ensemble Company. Her 50+ year career includes over forty productions as press agent, eventually becoming a producer in 2012 with the Tony Award winning revival of The Gershwin’s Porgy And Bess, followed by Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar And Grill in 2014.

WATCH the cast of “The Gershwin’s Porgy And Bess” perform on the Tony Awards

LOOK at Playbills from Irene Gandy’s career on Playbill Vault

LISTEN to the original cast album of Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar And Grill on Spotify

Each Day in February check back here and on our social media channels we’ll be celebrating an influential Black Musical Theatre Artist.

Icon of the Day – Monday, February 22, 2021 – Lena Horne

Lena Horne is an American singer, dancer, actress, and civil rights activist. Horne’s career spanned over 70 years, appearing in film, television, and theater. Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of 16 and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood. She announced her retirement in March 1980, but the next year starred in her legendary one-woman show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, which ran for more than 300 performances on Broadway. She then toured the country in the show, earning numerous awards and accolades. Horne continued recording and performing sporadically into the 1990s, retreating from the public eye in 2000.

WATCH Lena Horne perform “The Lady Is A Tramp” from the movie “Words And Music”

LOOK at Playbills from Lena Horne’s career on Playbill Vault

LISTEN to the original cast album of Lena Horne: The Lady And Her Music on Spotify

Each Day in February check back here and on our social media channels we’ll be celebrating an influential Black Musical Theatre Artist.

Icon of the Day – Sunday, February 21, 2021 – Hope Clarke

Hope Clarke is an American actress, dancer, vocalist, choreographer, and director. Clarke performed as principal dancer with the Katherine Dunham Company and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, working as an accomplished triple threat performer. Clarke made history in 1995 when she became the first African-American, as well as the first African-American woman, to direct and choreograph a major staging of the opera-musical Porgy and Bess. Clarke drew critical acclaim for her commitment to staging the show as a monument to African-American community and pride, giving a more hopeful, positive aura to a story that has been criticized for its stereotypes.

WATCH the cast of “Jelly’s Last Jam” perform on the Tony Awards

LOOK at Playbills from Hope Clarke’s career on Playbill Vault

LISTEN to the original cast album of Hallelujah, Baby! on Spotify

Each Day in February check back here and on our social media channels we’ll be celebrating an influential Black Musical Theatre Artist.

Icon of the Day – Saturday, February 20, 2021 – Ethel Waters

Ethel Waters is an American singer and actress. She was known for frequently performing jazz, swing, and pop music on the Broadway stage and in concerts. Waters’ notable recordings include “Dinah”, “Stormy Weather”, “Taking a Chance on Love”, “Heat Wave”, “Supper Time”, “Am I Blue?”, “Cabin in the Sky”, “I’m Coming Virginia”, and her version of “His Eye Is on the Sparrow”. Not only was she the first black woman to integrate Broadway’s theater district, she was also the second African American to be nominated for an Academy Award, the first African American to star on her own television show and the first African-American woman to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award.

Watch Ethel Waters perform in “Cabin In The Sky” (1943)

LOOK at Playbills from Ethel Waters’ career on Playbill Vault

LISTEN to a 5 song Ethel Waters playlist on Spotify

Each Day in February check back here and on our social media channels we’ll be celebrating an influential Black Musical Theatre Artist.

Icon of the Day – Friday, February 19, 2021 – Nell Carter

Nell Carter is an American singer and actress known as much for Broadway as television. Her performance in Ain’t Misbehavin’ made her an overnight sensation, and she was awarded both a Tony Award and an Emmy Award for her work. She temporarily left theatre to headline her own popular sitcom on NBC, “Gimme A Break”, for which she was nominated for two Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. Nell always came back to the stage, returning to Broadway in 1997 as Miss Hannigan in Annie. At the time of her passing, she was set to appear in a Long Beach production of the musical Raisin.

Watch Nell Carter in “Ain’t Misbehavin” (1982)

LOOK at Playbills from Nell Carter’s career on Playbill Vault

LISTEN to the original cast album of Ain’t Misbehavin’ on Spotify

Each Day in February check back here and on our social media channels we’ll be celebrating an influential Black Musical Theatre Artist.

Icon of the Day – Thursday, February 18, 2021 – LILLIAN HAYMAN

Baltimore native Lillian Hayman had previously appeared on Broadway, but got her big break playing Leslie Uggams’ mother in Hallelujah, Baby!, a role which won her a Tony Award and landed her a role in the original cast of the long running soap opera “One Life to Live”. Hayman reunited with Uggams in “The Leslie Uggams Show”, and starred in the Kander and Ebb’s 70, Girls, 70.

WATCH Lillian Hayman, Leslie Uggams, and Robert Hooks in the 1968 Tony Award performance for Hallelujah, Baby!

LOOK at Playbills from Lillian Hayman’s career on Playbill Vault

LISTEN to a 4 song Lillian Hayman Playlist on Spotify

Each Day in February check back here and on our social media channels we’ll be celebrating an influential Black Musical Theatre Artist.

Icon of the Day – Wednesday, February 17, 2021 – Geoffrey Holder

Geoffrey Holder is a legendary Trinidadian American multi-hyphenate artist. Holder was a Broadway performer, Metropolitan Ballet principal dancer, and Guggenheim Painting Fellow, before going on to win a Tony Award for Direction and Costume Design for the 1975 B’way production of The Wiz. Holder had an expansive career as a film & stage actor, painter, illustrator, composer, and more. He broke racial barriers when he became the face for 7-Up.

WATCH Geoffrey Holder dance in Carib Gold (1956)

LOOK at Playbills from Geoffrey Holder’s career on Playbill Vault

LISTEN to original cast recording of Holder’s The Wiz

Each Day in February check back here and on our social media channels we’ll be celebrating an influential Black Musical Theatre Artist.

Icon of the Day – Tuesday, February 16, 2021 – Michael R. Jackson

Michael R. Jackson is an American playwright, composer, and lyricist. He is originally from Detroit, Michigan, and holds a BFA in Playwriting and an MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from NYU. Jackson was named one of the “Black Male Writers for our Time” by The New York Times in 2018. In 2019, he received a Whiting Award for drama and a Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting. In 2020, Jackson was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for A Strange Loop, becoming the first black musical theatre writer to win the award. He was also the winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Drama. Additionally, Jackson received two Drama Desk Awards, two Obie Awards and two Outer Critics Circle Award Honors for the play. In June 2020, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the first LGBTQ Pride parade, Queerty named him among the fifty heroes “leading the nation toward equality, acceptance, and dignity for all people”.

WATCH the trailer from Michael’s Pulitzer-winning work A Strange Loop

READ a GQ feature on Michael

LISTEN to the Original Cast Recording of A Strange Loop – WARNING EXPLICIT LYRICS

Each Day in February check back here and on our social media channels we’ll be celebrating an influential Black Musical Theatre Artist.

Icon of the Day – Monday, February 15, 2021 – Marlies Yearby

Marlies Yearby is best known for her Tony-nominated choreographic contributions to the Broadway hit Rent. As a teenager in the late 1970s, Yearby was a professional disco dancer. In the 1980s, she trained in modern dance at San Jose State University and with Aaron Osborne at New Performance Gallery in San Francisco. In addition to her work for musical theater, she is founder and co-artistic director of Movin’ Spirits Dance Theater.

WATCH the 2008 Broadway Cast of Rent perform Marlies Yearby’s choreography in “La Vie Boheme”

READ about Marlies Yearby on Camille A. Brown’s Website

LOOK at Marlies Yearby’s Rent Playbill on Playbill Vault

LISTEN to a 4 song Rent playlist on Spotify

Each Day in February check back here and on our social media channels we’ll be celebrating an influential Black Musical Theatre Artist.

Icon of the Day – Sunday, February 14, 2021 – Pearl Bailey

Pearl Bailey won the Tony for the title role in the 1967 production of Hello, Dolly!. Ineligible for the Tony Award because she was a replacement, the Theatre Wing awarded her a special Tony. She received the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 1976 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom on October 17, 1988.

Some quotes from Pearlie Mae: “What the world really needs is more love and less paper work.”

“I never really look for anything. What God throws my way comes. I wake up in the morning and whichever way God turns my feet, I go.”

WATCH Pearl Bailey and the cast of Hello, Dolly! on the 1968 Tony Awards.

READ about Pearl Bailey on Extravagant Crowd

LOOK at Playbills from Pearl Bailey’s career on Playbill Vault

LISTEN to a 3 song Pearl Bailey playlist on Spotify

Each Day in February check back here and on our social media channels we’ll be celebrating an influential Black Musical Theatre Artist.

Icon of the Day – Saturday, February 13, 2021 – Debbie Allen

Debbie Allen is a true multi-hyphenate. This Emmy and Golden Globe winning actress, singer-songwriter, teacher, director and producer is also this year’s Kennedy Center Honoree. She has served on the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities under George W. Bush and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As a mentor and teacher, she heads the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in Los Angeles.

LEARN MORE:

WATCH Debbie Allen (and Chita Rivera and Bebe Neuwirth) perform “If My Friends Could See Me Now” in the 1997 Sweet Charity Concert Benefit at Avery Fisher Hall

READ about Debbie Allen in DANCE Magazine

LOOK at Playbills from Debbie Allen’s career on Playbill Vault

LISTEN to a 3 song Debbie Allen playlist on Spotify

Each Day in February check back here and on our social media channels we’ll be celebrating an influential Black Musical Theatre Artist.

Icon of the Day – Friday, February 12, 2021 – Brandy

Brandy is a Grammy winning pop vocalist who was handpicked by Whitney Houston to star in the 1997 television remake of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. In 2015, she hit the Broadway boards playing merry murderess Roxie Hart in the long-running revival of Chicago (a role she also played at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.).

LEARN MORE:

WATCH Brandy and her Boys sing “Roxie” from Chicago

READ about Brandy’s Broadway debut in Entertainment Weekly

LOOK at Brandy’s Chicago Playbill on Playbill Vault

LISTEN to 3 of Brandy’s Pop Songs on Spotify

Each Day in February check back here and on our social media channels we’ll be celebrating an influential Black Musical Theatre Artist.

Icon of the Day – Thursday, February 11, 2021 – Juanita Hall

Juanita Hall was an American musical theatre and film actress. She is remembered for her roles in the original stage and screen versions of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals South Pacific as Bloody Mary – a role that garnered her the Tony Award (the first win for an African-American) – and Flower Drum Song as Madame Liang.

LEARN MORE:

WATCH Juanita Hall sing “Bali Ha’i” live on television in 1952

READ about Juanita Hall on Masterworks Broadway

LOOK at Juanita Hall’s Career in Playbills on Playbill Vault

LISTEN to a 4 song Juanita Hall Playlist on Spotify

Each Day in February check back here and on our social media channels we’ll be celebrating an influential Black Musical Theatre Artist.

Icon of the Day – Wednesday, February 10, 2021 – Cynthia Erivo

Erivo began acting in a stage production of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and in the British television series “Chewing Gum”. She gained recognition for starring in the Broadway revival of The Color Purple, winning the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. She recently portrayed the abolitionist Harriet Tubman in the biopic “Harriet”, receiving Academy Award nominations for Best Actress and Best Original Song.

LEARN MORE:

WATCH Cynthia Erivo sing “A Piece of Sky” from “Yentl” at MCC’s 2016 Miscast Gala

READ about Cynthia Erivo in The Guardian

LOOK at Cynthia Erivo’s The Color Purple Playbill on Playbill Vault

LISTEN to a 3 song Cynthia Erivo Playlist on Spotify

Each Day in February check back here and on our social media channels we’ll be celebrating an influential Black Musical Theatre Artist.

Icon of the Day – Tuesday, February 9, 2021 – Miss Peppermint

Peppermint, or Miss Peppermint is best known from the New York nightlife scene and, in 2017, as the runner-up on the ninth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. In 2018 Peppermint made her debut in The-Go-Go’s-inspired musical Head Over Heels as Pythio, becoming Broadway’s first out trans woman to originate a lead role.

LEARN MORE:

WATCH Peppermint and cast members of Head Over Heels perform “Heaven is a Place on Earth” at the Columbus Circle H&M

READ about Peppermint’s Broadway debut in GQ

LOOK at Peppermint’s Head Over Heels Playbill on Playbill Vault

LISTEN to a 3 song Miss Peppermint Playlist on Spotify

Each Day in February check back here and on our social media channels we’ll be celebrating an influential Black Musical Theatre Artist.

Icon of the Day – Monday, February 8, 2021 – Daveed Diggs

Known for his Tony-winning turn in Hamilton, Daveed Diggs is an incredibly versatile artist. As a rapper, he is part of the experimental hip-hop group Clipping, as a performer he has been featured in films (“Zootopia”, “Wonder”), on television (“Snowpiercer”, “Black-ish”) and on stage. Diggs is also a film producer winning the Atlanta Film Festival’s Innovator Award in 2018.

LEARN MORE:

WATCH a clip of Daveed Diggs rapping for Ham4Ham

READ about and LISTEN to Daveed Diggs on NPR

LOOK at Playbills from Daveed Diggs’s Career on Playbill Vault

LISTEN to a 4 song Daveed Diggs Playlist on Spotify

Each Day in February check back here and on our social media channels we’ll be celebrating an influential Black Musical Theatre Artist.

Icon of the Day – Sunday, February 7, 2021 – Eubie Blake

Eubie Blake and lyricist Noble Sissle were the first Vaudeville Act to perform without wearing blackface or exaggerated dialect. Together, they wrote Shuffle Along, the first all-Black Broadway show, and the first by Black writers. Blake is recognized as a pioneer of ragtime music, and his album “Eighty-Six Years of Eubie Blake” sits in the Library of Congress.

LEARN MORE:

WATCH a clip of the reimagining of Eubie Blake’s “Shuffle Along…” on the 2016 Tony Awards

Icon of the Day – Saturday, February 6, 2021 – George C. Wolfe

George C. Wolfe is an American playwright and director. While serving as the Artistic Director of The Public Theatre, he won Tony Awards for his direction of Angels In America: Millennium Approaches (1993) and Bring in ‘da Noise/Bring in ‘da Funk (1996).

LEARN MORE:

WATCH George C. Wolfe on Charlie Rose talking about The Wild Party

LOOK at Playbills from George C. Wolfe’s Career on Playbill Vault

LISTEN to Songs from Shows George C. Wolfe has directed, on Spotify

Each Day in February check back here and on our social media channels we’ll be celebrating an influential Black Musical Theatre Artist.

Icon of the Day – Friday, February 5, 2021 – Camille A. Brown

Camille A. Brown is a dancer, choreographer, director and dance educator. She is the Founder & Artistic Director of Camille A. Brown & Dancers, and has congruently choreographed commissioned pieces for dance companies, Broadway shows, and universities.

LEARN MORE:

JOIN US FOR OUR SATURDAY MORNING DANCE CLASS tomorrow 2/6 at 11A (PST) on Zoom. Just scroll down for more info and to register.

WATCH Camille A Brown’s Tony-nominated Choir Boy Choreography

LOOK at Playbills from Camille A. Brown’s Career on Playbill Vault

LISTEN to Songs from Shows Camille A. Brown has choreographed on Spotify

Each Day in February check back here and on our social media channels we’ll be celebrating an influential Black Musical Theatre Artist.

Icon of the Day – Thursday, February 4, 2021 – Florence Mills

Florence Mills, considered by many to be the first African American Broadway star, successfully headlined the 1921 Shuffle Along at the Daley’s 63rd Street Theatre, marking the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance. Mills was an outspoken supporter of equal rights for African Americans, with her signature song “I’m a Little Blackbird” being a plea for racial equality, and during her life she broke many racial barriers.

LEARN MORE:

JOIN US FOR OUR FRIDAY NIGHT HISTORY CLASS tomorrow 2/5 at 7P (PST) on Facebook and Youtube. Just scroll down for more info.

LOOK at Playbills from Florence Mills’ Career on Playbill Vault

LISTEN to Songs Associated with Florence Mills on Spotify

Each Day in February check back here and on our social media channels we’ll be celebrating an influential Black Musical Theatre Artist.

Icon of the Day – Wednesday, February 3, 2021 – Stephanie Mills

Stephanie Mills first appeared on B’way at age 9. At 11, she won Amateur Night at the Apollo Theatre six weeks in a row. After originating the role of Dorothy in the seminal B’way musical The Wiz, Mills went on to a successful career as a R&B, Pop, & Disco recording artist.

LEARN MORE:

WATCH Stephanie Mills and The Wiz Cast Members on a 1977 Telethon

LOOK at Playbills from Stephanie Mills’ Career on Playbill Vault

LISTEN to a 3 song Stephanie Mills playlist on Spotify

Each Day in February check back here and on our social media channels we’ll be celebrating an influential Black Musical Theatre Artist.

Icon of the Day – Tuesday, February 2, 2021 – Billy Porter

In the 90s and 2000s Billy Porter was a Broadway star, singular vocalist, and equivalent with new musical theatre. After his Tony winning turn as Lola in Kinky Boots, Porter cracked open his feminine side, challenging gender norms with his red carpet lewks, and has grown his status into that of a cultural icon.

LEARN MORE:

WATCH Billy Porter and the Cast of Kinky Boots on the 2013 Tony Awards

LOOK at Playbills from Billy Porter’s Career on Playbill Vault

LISTEN to a 5 song Billy Porter playlist on Spotify

Each Day in February check back here and on our social media channels we’ll be celebrating an influential Black Musical Theatre Artist.

Icon of the Day – Monday, February 1, 2021 – Gregory Hines

Gregory Hines began tapping at 2 years old with his brother Maurice, and studied with legends Henry LeTang, The Nicholas Brothers, and Howard Sims. He danced like a drummer, “throwing down a cascade of taps like pebbles tossed across the floor”. He starred in more than 40 films, made an indelible mark on Broadway, and has become one of the most celebrated and impactful figures in tap.

LEARN MORE:

WATCH Gregory Hines in Jelly’s Last Jam on the 1992 Tony Awards

READ a biography on Gregory Hines from the NY Public Library

LOOK at Playbills from Gregory Hines Career on Playbill Vault

LISTEN to a 3 song playlist on Spotify

Each Day in February check back here and on our social media channels we’ll be celebrating an influential Black Musical Theatre Artist.