page_title: The Black Crook
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: The Black Crook / Background
caption_attribution_description: The Black Crook, Theatre Bill
context_page_description: The Black Crook is a work of musical theatre first produced, with great success, in New York in 1866. Many theatre writers have identified The Black Crook as the first popular piece that conforms to the modern notion of a musical, while others regard this conclusion "as something of a joke". The book is by Charles M. Barras. The music, selected and arranged by Thomas Baker, consists mostly of adaptations, but it included some new songs composed for the piece, notably "You Naughty, Naughty Men". The story is a Faustian melodramatic romantic comedy, but the production became famous for its spectacular special effects and skimpy costumes.
  It opened on September 12, 1866 at the 3,200-seat Niblo's Garden on Broadway, in New York City, and ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. It was then toured extensively for decades and revived on Broadway in 1870–71, 1871–72 and many more times after that. The Black Crook is often considered a prototype of the modern musical in that its popular songs and dances are interspersed throughout a unifying play and performed by the actors.
caption: Program from original production
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