IN the theater, black is bitter. During a given tested month, December of 1969, more than half of all the black actors employed on Broadway were working in one show, the all-black production of David Merrick's Hello, Dolly!, and the cast numbered 48.
Merrick is a theatrical barometer. In 1961 he hired not a single black actor for his musical, Subways Are for Sleeping, though the Manhattan locale is a spectrum of racial color. On the other hand, he has employed a skilled black stage manager, Charles Blackwell, for years. In 1957 Merrick briefly...
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