Considered by many to be the first American musical, ‘The Black Crook’ was born in 1866 out of a haphazard union between a hackneyed melodrama by Charles M. Barras and a newly arrived ballet troupe from Paris. The production was billed as the most costly spectacle of its day, taking postbellum America by storm and codifying the outlandish conventions of musical spectacle that defined the genre well into the twentieth century. Join Joshua William Gelb, director and adaptor of a recent revival of ‘The Black Crook’ for a lively exploration of the mythology, scandal, and tragedy of this legendary production.

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