Run, Little Chillun or Run Little Chillun is a folk opera written by Hall Johnson. According to James Vernon Hatch and Leo Hamalian, it is one of the most successful musical dramas of the Harlem Renaissance. It was the first Broadway show directed by an African-American.
| Run, Little Chillun | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Written by | Hall Johnson |
| Date premiered | 1933 |
Development
editRun, Little Chillun or Run Little Chillun (the original score did not include the comma) is a folk opera play, or musical drama, written by Hall Johnson.[1]: 228 The script was first published in 1996.[1]
Plot
editThe play contrasts pagan and Christian religious traditions among Blacks in the American South.[1]
Run Little Chillun’ recounts the story of Jim Jones, son of a minister of the New Hope Baptist church. He is seduced by Sulamai, a beautiful woman from the New Day Pilgrims, an Afro-Caribbean "cult" that (in Johnson's words) finds God manifest through nature, defines sin as "a sense of guilt inculcated through wrong education," and views the human body not as "an object for shame or concealment," but as the "branches of a beautiful, fruitful tree". (Run Little Chillun’ 1939; Simpson 2008, 189,190).[2] Jones leaves his family and church to join the Pilgrims, but Christianity triumphs in the end; Sulamai is struck dead by lightning and Jones returns to the Baptist fold.[3]
Productions
editThe show premiered in 1933 on Broadway and ran for four months and 126 performances.[1][4] It was revived in 1935–1937 by the Federal Theater Project and ran for two years in Los Angeles.[5] It was directed by Clarence Edouard Muse.[5] It was produced in 1939 in San Francisco at the Golden Gate International Exposition.[1][6] In 1943 it was revived on Broadway at the Hudson Theatre.[1][5] It was the first Broadway show with an African-American director, the first with an African-American composer, and the first African-American folk opera on Broadway.[1][4][5]
Reception
editHatch and Hamalian called it "buoyant in spirit" and said it is considered one of the most successful musical dramas of the Harlem Renaissance.[1] Kenneth Burke said the play allowed audiences to see how American Blacks had survived in a culture of oppression.[1] According to Eileen Southern, "the outstanding quality of the play was its music, particularly in two spectacular scenes—a revival meeting and a pagan religious orgy."[4]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i Hatch, James Vernon; Hamalian, Leo (1996). Lost plays of the Harlem Renaissance, 1920–1940. Internet Archive. Detroit : Wayne State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8143-2580-3.
- ^ Simpson, Eugene Thamon (2008). Hall Johnson, His Life, His Spirit, and His Music. Lantham, Md.: Scarecrow Press.
- ^ Miller, Leta E. (Winter 2024). "Elmer Keeton and His Bay Area Negro Chorus". The Argonaut, Journal of the San Francisco Historical Society. 34 (2): 59–61.
- ^ a b c Southern, Eileen (1997). The Music of Black Americans: A History. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 421. ISBN 978-0-393-03843-9.
- ^ a b c d "Muse, Clarence Edouard 1889–1979". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
- ^ James, Jack; Weller, Earle Vonard (1941). Treasure island, "the magic city," 1939-1940; the story of the Golden gate international exposition. Prelinger Library. San Francisco, Calif., Pisani printing and publishing company. p. 78.