I was just at a birthday party for a neighbor, and he introduced a long-time family friend, Paul Tracey. Paul was originally from South Africa and first arrived in the United States as part of the international tour of "Wait A Minim."
Paul created the show with his brother, Andrew, not intending it to be an act or a show. Their father, Hugh Tracey, was a well-known musicologist, one of the first who collected African music, so Paul and Andrew were raised hearing it. When they performed some of it informally, they we asked if they had an act. After they said, "No," they realized they could put one together, and they performed it in Johannesburg. Several producers saw it, and Paul said they were giggling through the serious parts. When asked why, they said because they knew they could expand the act into a show.
After its local success, it toured South Africa and several countries in Africa, then it went to London and New York. It was first picketed in New York because it had an all-white cast, but people like Harry Belafonte asked the picketers if they'd seen the show, and when they said they hadn't, he explained that it was anti-apartheid, and that these were good people.
After its year on Broadway, the show continued its international tour though Paul said its best audiences in the States were in Washington, DC and Los Angeles. The show satirizes various international people living in South Africa, so audiences needed to know a little about international politics to really understand it. Paul said it was often compared to "Beyond The Fringe" which preceded it in the Golden Theater, because it had that kind of humor. I didn't understand the show when I saw it and thought it was a tuneful little revue. But that also means that a very much younger version of me saw a very much younger version of Paul Tracey perform on Broadway in 1966.
The songs from the show are posted on YouTube. A section of the show as performed on "The Ed Sullivan Show" is on Vimeo, and you can get the necessary information to see it from the YouTube comments section. There's also a piece about Hugh Tracey.
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