Jolson in the flesh, but without paint, as actor walks PC tightrope as entertainer

Published on Tuesday 17 February 2009 20:57

AL JOLSON, the star of the first "talking picture", performed many of his most memorable songs in "blackface" make-up. But yesterday producers of a musical based on the American singer and actor's life said the star would not appear "blacked up" in the show.

They have controversially dropped a scene in Jolson & Co in which the performer sings the famous My Mammy wearing black make-up. The musical opens at Edinburgh's King's Theatre next week ahead of a 13-week UK tour.

The producer, Michael Harrison, said: "Blacking up is historically correct, but in this day and age we are not out to offend anyone. There is reference to blacking up in the script, but we didn't feel it was necessary to include it within the show."

The use of blackface on the British stage is virtually unheard of, even in Shakespeare's Othello, and opposed by the actors' union, Equity.

But an Equity spokesman, Paul Brown, said last night that a Jolson show could be "one of the very limited times when we might not actively object, because it is about a white artist who blacked up… Under all other circumstances, we say no."

The actor Allan Stewart, best-known as a pantomime dame, stars in Jolson & Co, singing 17 songs, such as Sonny Boy and Swanee.

Stewart starred in a different London musical based on Jolson's life 12 years ago that did include a blackface number. A few protesters picketed, but were won over when they were brought inside to see it, he said.

He said: "I personally believe it should be in there, but even the slightest sign of negativity could be bad for the show."

Although popular on the stage in the 19th and early 20th centuries, blackface now appears an offensive stereotype, particularly when singers also parody Southern black speech. The former Bishop of Edinburgh and Scottish arts leader, Richard Holloway, said: "It's a difficult one. In a sense to be authentic about Jolson, that's what he did. On the other hand, it always was offensive, but I don't know how you would get round that."

He added: "I remember as a kid I used to enjoy them; I went to all the movies. One thought nothing of it, but it is terribly demeaning."

Jolson, who lived from 1886 to 1950, was the Lithuanian-born son of a Jewish cantor. He rebelled against family tradition to embark on a life in showbusiness. As the star of a string of sell-out New York shows, he was the highest-paid entertainer of his day, and in 1927 he featured in The Jazz Singer, which was loosely based on his own life and was the first film with talking sequences.

Jolson & Co explores how the actor and singer "blacked up" as a mask to hide behind. "It lets me get away with stuff I couldn't do with a naked 'punnim'," he tells Mae West, using the Yiddish word for 'face'. "I slap it on, and I'm not a 'Litvak' any more."

The American co-writer of the play, Jay Berkow, said that its original production in New York included a short blackface sequence.

"It occurs directly after his marriage to Ruby Keeler (the film actress] falls apart and he hides his pain behind the 'mask' as he sings the signature song, Mammy," he said.

"The show works regardless of this moment, but we did feel that seeing him putting on the make-up was shocking and painful."

Mr Berkow said blackface entertainment was "racist and demeaning", but was "a significant element in the development of the early American musical".

Jolson & Co, with an eight-piece band, delves into Jolson's four marriages and his egotistical, irascible off-stage persona.

While Jolson broke racial barriers as a Jewish entertainer, his breakthrough came as a "minstrel" singer.

At the same time he was an early campaigner against discrimination on Broadway, and helped to pave the way for black performers such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.

FACT BOX

THE Black and White Minstrel Show ended its 20-year-run on British television in 1978.

Only parodies survive. Matt Lucas and David Walliams play two minstrels living together in the sketch show Little Britain.

US actor Robert Downey is up for an Oscar for his role in the action film spoof Tropic Thunder, in which he played an obsessive Australian actor who has a change of skin colour.

"There may come a time people can visit the whole thing in a less controversial way, but I don't think we're there yet," said The Scotsman's theatre critic Joyce McMillan. "It's a very short time ago that people began to realise this was a problem."