Tuxedo was a vaudeville show with minstrelsy in which the song "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay" was interpolated.
Actor and songwriter Edward Marble wrote and produced Tuxedo for George Thatcher and his minstrel troupe known as Thatcher's Minstrels.Rice, p. 187Obituary of Edward Marble, The New York Times, August 12, 1900, Page 12 The show debuted in Lincoln, Nebraska, on July 23, 1891.Gänzl, Kurt. "Ta-ra-ra-boom-de ... oy? ", Kurt Gänzl's blog, 20 August 2018 It then toured, including to Boston, Massachusetts, beginning on August 24, 1891, and the National Theater in Washington, D.C."City and District: Amusements Tonight", Evening Star, Washington, D.C., October 3, 1891, p. 16, col. 1, accessed November 5, 2016 Tuxedo arrived in New York at the Park Theatre (at Broadway and 35th Street) on October 5, 1891."Amusements This Evening", The New York Times, October 5, 1891, p. 4
The song "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay" was introduced in this show as an interpolated number.Tompkins and Kilby, p. 387
Background In describing Tuxedo, The New York Times wrote:
The work, it is said, makes no pretension to anything like a connected plot, but affords opportunity for the introduction of a large number of 'specialties' which are relied on to keep alive the interest of the audience. The action takes place in Tuxedo, and during its progress an English Lord, a typical 'tough,' and a number of pretty girls are introduced. The Thatcher company include Hughey Dougherty, George Lewis, Andrew Powers, James H. Powers, E. M. E. O'Rourke, and W. H. Frillman, and among the females of the cast are Ida Fitzhugh, Agnes Halleck, Irene Murphy, and Mamie Gilroy. A burlesque of Faust and Marguerite is a feature of the last act.""Notes of the Stage," The New York Times, October 4, 1891, p. 13
Just a week later, a Times critic wrote:
The combination of minstrelsy and farce at the Park Theatre called Tuxedo has made the hit of the season at that house, which is rapidly becoming established as the chosen home of this light style of entertainment in New-York. George Thatcher and Hughey Dougherty are the two leading people in the entertainment, and to see Hughey in a white face is of itself enough to crowd the house.""Notes of the Stage," The New York Times, October 11, 1891, p. 13
The Tuxedo company toured for years, during which many performers joined and left the company. It returned to New York on March 7, 1892,Brown, p. 382. and again on March 21, 1893, this time at the Columbus Theatre.Brown, p. 560
Notes
References Brown, Thomas Allston. A History of the New York Stage. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1903. Rice, Edward Le Roy. Monarchs of Minstrelsy, from "Daddy" Rice to Date: From "Daddy" Rice to Date. Kenny Publishing Company, 1911. Tompkins, Eugene and Quincy Kilby, The History of the Boston Theatre, 1854-1901. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1908.
External links
Description of Tuxedo, including short biographies of the cast