MINSTREL REVIVAL

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 897, 12 October 1956, Page 23

MINSTREL REVIVAL

HE craze for minstrel shows which swept America in the 19th century, saw its heydey between 1850 and 1870, and the end of this peculiar American phenomenon (which was _ extremely popular in England also) came during the se¢ond decade of the 20th century. The conventional shows started with the cry, "Gentlemen, be seated," and this cry has been used as the title of a record which will be heard from YAs this week in Theatre of Music. Gentlemen, Be Seated, is described as "an artful and elegant reconstruction of the most celebrated minstrel shows." Most of the songs are familiar, and if the gags do not measure up to present-day humour, the music is certainly as "artful and elegant" as could be wished. The minstrel show consisted of three parts. At the rise of the curtain the black-faced company with a lone whitefaced middleman stood in a semi-circle. Then the middleman, "Mister Interlocutor,’ ordered "Gentlemen, Be Seated." The interlocutor, painfully correct, engaged in badinage with Mr. Bones and Mr. Sambo, the two endmen, who were the chief punsters and _ wise-crackers. Quips and conundrums, interpolated comic and sentimental songs, with a gay songs by chorus, filled out the first part. The second part was the "olio," a variety bill of dances, vocal and instrumental music, and the third part consisted of after pieces-farces, comic opera or burlesque. Gentlemen, Be Seated, opens with a grand march, including "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" and "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee." Other songs included in the programme are "Camptown Races," "Old Folks at Home," "In the Evening by the Moonlight" and " Shine On Harvest Moon." In this last is included a perfectly executed soft shoe sequence by "Mr. Bones." Singers include Gordon Goodman, John Neher, Stanley Kimes and Osie Johnson, and the orchestra and chorus are conducted by Allen Roth.