{"id":14634,"date":"2022-11-16T21:06:40","date_gmt":"2022-11-16T21:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=14634"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:21","slug":"about-this-orbit-from-ballet-to-broadway-and-black","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2022\/11\/16\/about-this-orbit-from-ballet-to-broadway-and-black\/","title":{"rendered":"(P)About this Orbit: From Ballet to Broadway and Black"},"content":{"rendered":"

About this Orbit: From Broadway to Ballet and Back<\/h1>\n

Jamaica (1957)<\/h2>\n

Synopsis<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Set on tropical paradise Pigeon’s Island, Jamaica centers around Savannah, a young woman who dreams of leading a life of <\/span>modernity in New York City. Two suitors vie for her attention: Koli, a handsome but poor fisherman, and Joe Nashua, a Big Apple businessman who has come to the remote island to dive for pearls. Although Savannah is enticed by Joe’s promises that the pair could exchange life on the island for that in the city, she ultimately decides to remain with Koli, after he saves her younger brother during a hurricane.<\/p>\n

Background<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Lena Horne and Ricardo Montalban (center) with the cast of Jamaica (1957).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On October 31, 1957, Jamaica opened at the Imperial Theatre on Broadway. Yip Harburg and Fred Saidy, known for their collaboration on Finian\u2019s Rainbow, wrote the book. Harburg also wrote the lyrics and Harold Arlen composed the music. The two had previously worked together on The Wizard of Oz. \u201cFather of American jazz dance,\u201d Jack Cole choreographed the musical. Oliver Smith designed the set; Miles White designed costumes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Actress and activist Lena Horne starred in the musical, which also featured dancers Alvin Ailey<\/a>, Barbara Wright<\/a>, Jayne Craddock<\/a>, Frank Glass, Nat Horne<\/a>, Charles Moore<\/a>, and Billy Wilson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The production ran for just short of two years, closing after 555 performances on April 11, 1959.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Harold Arlen, haroldarlen.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Jack Cole, Oxford Reference<\/a><\/p>\n

Jamaica, Internet Broadway Database<\/a><\/p>\n

Jamaica on Broadway: The Popular Caribbean and Mock Transnational Performance by Shane Vogel, Theatre Journal<\/a><\/p>\n

Jamaica, Playbill<\/a><\/p>\n

New Musical in Manhattan, Time Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n

New York Public Library Digital Collections<\/a><\/p>\n

Yip Harburg Biography, yipharburg.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Leila Abou-Jaoude<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About this Orbit: From Broadway to Ballet and Back Jamaica (1957) Synopsis Set on tropical paradise Pigeon’s Island, Jamaica centers around Savannah, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"universe-template.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[301,253],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-ballet-to-broadway-and-black","category-universe"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14634"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18476,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14634\/revisions\/18476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}