#jimtown

1927

Rang-Tang [sometimes spelled with a hyphen, sometimes without] is a musical revue in two acts by Ford Dabney (music), Josephine Trent (lyrics) and Kaj Gynt (book). The original production was produced by Walker and Kavanaugh and staged by Flournoy E. Miller, who headlined with Aubrey Lyles. 

The title is a slang derivation of “Orangutan”. 

Rang-Tang Story: Sam (Miller) and Steve (Lyles) are two Jimtown barbers who flee their creditors, steal an airplane, and embark on the first transatlantic non-stop flight from America to Africa in search of treasure. While in flight, the plane begins to malfunction and the wings fall off. 

For perspective, the show opened just seven weeks after Charles Lindbergh made his triumphant flight across the ocean.  

Following a splash landing near Madagascar, they meet the Queen of Sheba (Josephine Hall), the King of Madagascar (Daniel L. Haynes), and a Zulu tribe. The two barbers become involved in comic misadventures with natives and fierce animals. They find a buried treasure, return to the US, and arrive at a Harlem cabaret, where they celebrate being two of the richest men in the world.

It was acclaimed as one of the most successful black musical revues of the late 1920s. Miller and Lyles were previously responsible for Shuffle Along, the mega-hit of 1921 which was revised (and reinterpreted) on Broadway in 2016. Miller and Lyles were played by Brian Stokes Mitchell and Billy Porter, respectively. 

Instead of trekking down to Atlantic City, Rang-Tang had its world premiere in Asbury Park at the Savoy Theatre. It then went a couple of towns north to the Broadway in Long Branch before moving to the Big Apple Broadway in New York City. 

Rang-Tang opened on Broadway on July 12, 1927, at the Royale Theater (now the Bernard B. Jacobs) and ran for 119 performances, including a 14-week overrun, during which, the production moved to the Majestic – finishing October 24, 1927.

It might have had even longer legs had it not been in competition with another black show, Africana, starring Ethel Water, playing at Daly’s 63rd Street Theatre. In the end, despite playing concurrently, Africana ran significantly shorter than Rang-Tang. 

Instead of trying out in Atlantic City, Rang-Tang came to the shore as a Broadway hit on tour on November 14, 1927. 

Miller and Lyles naturally continued to star, billed above the title. Other stops on the post-Broadway tour included Brooklyn’s Werba's Theater, Baltimore's Ford's Theatre, Boston’s Tremont Theatre, New Haven's Shubert Theatre, Queens’, Cort Theater, and finally (and fittingly) in Harlem at the Lafayette Theatre. It closed in mid-February 1928. 

The musical resurfaced in June 1928, but without Miller and Lyles, first in Chicago at the Woods Theatre, then in Detroit at the Koppin Theater.