What is it about?
This essay examines the role of yellowface performance in Cohan’s 1904 production. By exchanging the “yellow” body for that of the black, pairing visible acts of yellowface caricature with “ethnic” leitmotivs, and lacing an otherwise syncopated production with ambiguous musical phrases, Cohan disguises the musical’s strong Africanist presence.
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Why is it important?
Masking can take many forms other than the obvious and/or visible. This essay shows the various substitutions (besides the visible ones) that went into the making of Broadway.
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This page is a summary of: Queue the Music: Cohan's Yellowface Substitution in Little Johnny Jones, Theatre Survey, April 2018, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/s0040557418000066.
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