Michael Todd’s Hot Mikado with Bill Robinson, staged by Hassard Short. Hall of Music, New York World’s Fair.

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Profusely-illustrated souvenir program for this jazzed-up adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado. A visual spectacle, the musical featured an African-American cast and starred the great Bill “Bojangles” Robinson.

The production opened in 1939 as a part of the New York’s World Fair. “[It] marked Robinson’s sixty-first birthday, and he celebrated by dancing down Broadway, from Sixty-first Street to the Broadhurst Theatre at Forty-fourth Street [...] When Robinson died in New York City, newspapers claimed that almost one hundred thousand people witnessed the passing of the funeral procession, a testament to the esteem in which he was held by members of his community.” (Constance Valis Hill)

Price: $150.00