I am sure that some regulars here know a bit about these two shows, but they definitely are either the pioneers in multi-racial casting not born of necessity, i.e., the characters are not strictly defined as black, white, Latin, Asian, etc., or among the pioneers.
Beggar's Holiday was yet another version of The Beggar's Opera. While most of the principals were white, several were black, including the Lockits, and the cast as a whole was multi-racial. There seems to have been no attempt to remove or downplay the relationship between Macheath and Lucy.
As for Shinbone Alley, with characters who were mostly cats and cockroaches, there was no need to worry about the reality of the situations. Eartha Kitt played mehitabel, the cat, while Eddie Bracken was archy, the cockroach. Most of the other principals were white, but the company was truly mixed. Chita Rivera was Kitt's standby. In other audio, television and animated versions of the piece, mehitabel was played by Carol Channing and Tammy Grimes.
I intentionally left out House of Flowers because I think it has only one white character, but if we are counting shows with only one black character (and I guess we are, and I mentioned one in Bloomer Girl), then we can count shows with only one white character. |
