Biography

One of the most important figures in pre-jazz African-American music, Will Marion Cook is also one of its better known personalities. As a composer, conductor, performer, teacher, and producer, he had his hand in nearly every aspect of the black music of his time and worked with nearly every other important musician in his fields. Uncompromising and difficult to work with, he still commanded respect from his peers for his abilities and accomplishments.

Cook was born to middle class parents in Washington, D.C., on January 27, 1869. His father, John Hartwell Cook, was in the first class of students at Howard University Law School in Washington, D.C. He went on to become the school's first dean. Following his father's sudden death in 1879, Cook and his mother lived in several cities around the country, including Denver and Kansas City.

Frederick Douglass helped organize a fundraiser to send Cook to study in Europe. As a result, Cook studied from 1887-89 at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik with Joseph Joachim, the famous violinist and associate of Brahms. Upon his return to the U.S. in 1890, however, his classical career went nowhere. Since he was unable to find employment at any musical institution, he began to teach music privately; among his students was Clarence Cameron White, who later became famous as a violinist and composer.

Cook's earliest composition was Scenes from the Opera of Uncle Tom's Cabin–intended for the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, but which was not performed. In 1894-95 he continued his studies at the National Conservatory for Music where Antonin Dvořák and John White were teaching.

Cook turned to popular music as his classical career was not successful. He began writing songs and formed the Gotham-Attucks Publishing Company with R. C. McPherson. His first big success was the musical Clorindy, or The Origin of the Cakewalk (1898). The lyricist and librettist for this show was Paul Laurence Dunbar who wrote (perhaps at Cook's insistence) in a dialect style. Cook remained an important figure in the new century. He wrote and published many songs, was prominent as a conductor, and was the musical director for Bert Williams and George Walker's string of groundbreaking musicals, including The Sons of Ham (1900), In Dahomey (1903) (the first musical composed and performed entirely by African-Americans in a major Broadway theater), Abyssinia (1906), and Bandanna Land (1908). Cook also wrote music for The Southerners (1904), the first Broadway show to feature a racially integrated cast. He worked with Ernest Hogan on a musical Jes Lak White Fo'ks (1899) and with Hogan's Memphis Students performance troupe, with whom he toured Europe in 1905. (Full Bio)

Plays

CLORINDY, OR THE ORIGIN OF THE CAKEWALK (1898) 

Clorindy, or The Origin of the Cakewalk is a one-act musical by composer Will Marion Cook and librettist Paul Laurence Dunbar. The piece is often credited as the first Broadway musical with an all-Black cast. The musical featured popular songs such as “'Who Dat Say Chicken In Dis Crowd,” “Darktown is Out Tonight,” “Love in a Cottage is Best,” and “Jump Back.”  

Cast Requirement: N/A

Characters: N/A

Publication: Clorindy: March & Two-Step. M. Witmark & Sons, 1898. (Link)

UNCLE EPH’S CHRISTMAS (1899) 

Musical vaudeville in one act written in collaboration with Paul Laurence Dunbar and written for vaudeville star Ernest Hogan. A dialect play with interpolated songs, depicting a Christmas celebration in Uncle Eph’s cabin, where he resides with his wife, Aunt Chloe, and their children. Uncle Eph, in the spirit of the season, becomes intoxicated in the presence of his neighbors and guests, which include the church parson and the village gossip. (Source)

Cast Requirement: 10+

Characters: Uncle Eph, Aunt Chloe, Eph Jr., Village Gossip, Parthenia, Darky Dan/Czar of Dixieland, Parson Jones, Expressman, Slob Coon, Chorus

Publication: Uncle Eph’s Christmas. Alexander Street Press, 2003. (Link)*

JES LAK WHITE FO’KS (1899) 

Written with lyrics by Paul Laurence Dunbar. In Jes Lak White Fo’ks, Pompous Johnsing is holding a church revival service in his home as they sing “We’s a Comin.” Pompous brings in a chest of valuables and gold. He sings “Spread de News,” and then shares his plan to use it as a dowry for his daughter who recently graduated from Vassar. His daughter Mandy enters and sings “Colored Girl from Vassar,” with the chorus. After Pompous fails to convince Jube and onlookers of his royal status with a hand drawn family tree, he sings “Evah Niggah is a King” with the chorus. The chorus number “Love Looks Not at Estate,” follows Pompous' announcement that Mandy will marry JuJu, the Cannibal King. In reply, Mandy and the chorus sing “Love is King,” and after meeting JuJu, Pompous decides that he was wrong. He decides to enjoy his life and 'quit acting just like white folks' (Source) 

Cast Requirement: 5+

Characters: Pompous Johsing, Jube Johsnon, Elder Snowball, Mandy Johnsing, JuJu the Cannibal King, Chorus

Publication: Jes Lak White Fo’ks. Alexander Street Press, 2003. (Link)*

THE CASINO GIRL (1900) 

Music written by Cook with book by Harry B. Smith and lyrics by Ludwig Englander. In The Casino Girl, Laura Lee, a former chorus girl from the Casino Theatre in New York, attempts to escape the amorous advances of Percy, an English earl, by going to Cairo in Egypt where she sets herself up as Mademoiselle Estelle, a French milliner. Percy arrives in Egypt in pursuit of her. Laura Lee endures complications involving a comic Pasha and some clownish thieves before she realizes that she loves Percy in return, and the two are united. (Source)

Cast Requirement: 17+

Characters: Pilsener Pasha, J. Offenbach Gaggs, Percy Harold Ethelbert Van Stuyvesant, Ben Muley, Potage, 1st Officer, 2nd Officer, Laura Lee, Dolly Twinkle, Miss Roxana Rocks, Lotta Rocks, Carrie Rocks, Mrs. H. Malaprop Rocks, Selim, Fatima, Odaliaka, Rastus the Errand Boy, Wives, Slaves, Others 

Publication: The Casino Girl. E. Ascherberg & Co. ; E. Schuberth & Co., 1900. (Link)

IN DAHOMEY (1903) 

Cook composed this musical co-written with Jesse A. Shipp and Paul Laurence Dunbar. Conceived specifically to feature the popular vaudeville team of Bert Williams and George Walker, its delightfully free-wheeling libretto portrayed the two comedians as the comical Shylock Homestead, known as Shy  to his friends (Williams), and Rareback Pinkerton, his buddy and adviser (Walker). The two get involved with the Get-the-Coin Syndicate, led by Hustling Charley (played by author Shipp), which is raising cash to back the Dahomey Colonisation Society set up by Hamilton Lightfoot (Peter Hampton) and his brother Moses. (Source)

Cast Requirement: 19+ 

Characters: Je-Je, Menuki, Moses Lightfoot, Shylock Homestead, Rareback Punkerton, Cicero Lightfoot, Dr. Straight, George Reeder, Henry Stampfield, Me Sing, Hustling Charlie, Leather, Office Still, White Wash Man, Messenger Rush, Pansy, Cecilia Lightfoot, Mrs. Stringer, Rosetta Lightfoot, Colonists, Natives

Publication: Black Theatre U.S.A. Edited by James V. Hatch and Ted Shine. Free Press, 1996. (Link)

ABYSSINIA (1906) 

Abyssinia was a musical written by Cook in collaboration with Bert A. Williams. The book and lyrics were by Jesse A. Shipp and Alexander Rogers. Abyssinia tells the story of Rastus Johnson, played by Walker, winning a lottery and taking his dim-witted pal Jasmine Johnson to the African country of their ancestors. The duo’s misadventures land them before Abyssinia’s ruthless monarch Menelik, who bangs a gong to determine whether they’ll live or die: three bangs means death, four indicate life. At the show’s climax, after an extremely memorable pause, Menelik banged it a fourth time. (Source)

Cast Requirement: 21+ 

Characters: Jasmine Jenkins, Rastus Johnson, Elder Fowler, Miss Primly, Aunt Cally Parker, Wong Foo, Serena, Lucinda, Nettie, Daphne, Frank, Authur, Sophronia, Mandy, Matilda, Oscar,  Sonny, King Menelik II, The Affa Negus Tegulet, Shambal Bolasso, Zamish, Serena, Oureeka, Hasid, The Bijirondi, The Bishop, Fai-Tu, Varinoe Market Girls, Ulissa Market Girls, Allamo Market Girls, Miram, Americans with Caravan,  Abyssinian soldiers, citizens, wood carriers, water carriers, market girls, beggars, and a few more.

Publication: Abyssinia. Alexander Street Press, 2003. (Link)*

UNPUBLISHED

THE SOUTHERNERS (1904) 

Written with librettists Richard Grant and Will Mercer. In The Southerners there are two pairs of lovers: Le Roy Preston, bound for the navy after a fight with his Southern belle Polly Drayton; and his sister Japónica, who is watched over by a lecherous old general, along with Le Roy's friend Cyril. Le Roy wishes to free his slaves before he joins the navy, but the slaves are less than thrilled by the promise of manumission. In his stead, Le Roy bestows the care of the plantation to his 'cousin' Robert Rutledge , though it is never clear if Bob is actually his cousin or perhaps a fake. Either way, the slaves are threatened with the auction block to pay off Bob's gambling debts, Polly dons breeches to try and join Le Roy at sea, and Japónica stands in for her own black slave Parthenia at auction. There is a free agent character in the play: the polygamist Branigan Bey, an 'Irish Turk' visiting America to acquire a new addition for his harem. Following a sea battle between Bey–who has snatched Japónica–fighting against Cyril and Le Roy, an older Preston is awakened by his still-faithful servant, his ex-slave Uncle Daniel, and they chuckle over the past together. 

Cast Requirement: 34 (20f, 12m)

Characters: Lily, Colonel Maximilian Easy, Louisiana, Pansy, Parthenia, Florida, Japónica Preston, Violet, Phil Fuller, Aunt Matilda, Daisy, Sam Blossom, Polly Drayton, Alabama, LeRoy Preston, General Preston, Bob Rutledge, Olivia Pemberton, Uncle Dan’l, Dandy Dan, Virginia, Brannigan Bey, Mandy Lou, Uncle Mose, Magnolia Preston, Georgia, Marguerite, Atlanta, Lewis Middleton, Carolina, Orleans, Maryland, Harry Stetson, Judge Budge, Rose, Cecil Brown

Publication Info: N/A

BANDANNA LAND (1908) 

Skunkton Bowser, a performer who does one-night-stands with a minstrel show, inherits $25,000 as a bequest from his father's former owner. His educated friend, Bud Jenkins, appoints himself as guardian of Bowser and creates a park for African Americans called "Bandanna Land.” Jenkins assists in selling the park to a railroad company that does not like the presence of the African Americans. Despite Jenkins, Bowser is determined to receive his fair share of the profits of the sale. (Source) 

Cast Requirement: 38 (13f, 25m)

Characters: Mandy Lou, Sandy Turner, Angelina Diggs, Amos Simmons, Doc Foster, Mose Blackstone, Mr. Collins, Fred Lewis, Dinah Simmons, Bud Jenkins, Skunkton Bowser, Si Springer, Amelia Green, Jack Dimery, Sleepy Jim Harper, Cynthia, Julia Smothers, Babe Brown, Deacon Sparks, Dick Beel, Jim Strode, Bill Hayden, Neil Carter, Becky White, Mr. Wilson, Sophie Simmons, Pete Simmons, Doc Foster, Mr. White, Mr. Black, Mr. Jones, Abe Milum, Fountain Lewis, Mr. Brown, Sid Morgan, Jim Harper Jr., Sue Higgins, Sis Black, Mr. Green

Publication: N/A

RESOURCES