Feb 20
Eartha Kitt as Shaleem-La-Lum, featuring Tony Carroll, Broadway musical "Timbuktu!", March 1 to September 10 of 1978. Eartha won a Tony for "best actress in musical". She was 51 years old.
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Eartha Kitt as Shaleem-La-Lum, featuring Tony Carroll, Broadway musical "Timbuktu!", March 1 to September 10 of 1978. Eartha won a Tony for "best actress in musical". She was 51 years old.
TIMBUKTU! (1978)
@thealmightyemprex @themousefromfantasyland @the-blue-fairie @princesssarisa @rayatii @tamisdava2 @professorlehnsherr-almashy @maimoncat
This revision of Kismet, the musical tale of a wily poet who helps his daughter marry a prince while enjoying a dalliance of his own, was set in the city of Timbuktu, capital of the Empire of Mali in West Africa, in the year 1361 (of Islam 752), the 14th Century.
Program Note: The Real City of Timbuktu:
"Timbuktu was Moslem, black, opulent, and remote. Travelers died in attempts to cross the Sahara in search of this fabled city, and so its reputation grew even faster than its wealth. When one of the rulers, Mansa Musa, made a pilgrimage to Mecca in the year 1324, he brought with him a vast retinue of thousands and gave away so much gold that the price of gold fell ten to fifteen percent in the money markets of Cairo."
With costume design, coreography and direction by Geoffrey Holder, it featured an all-black cast and five new songs by Robert Wright and George Forrest taken from West African folk music.
The original production starred Eartha Kitt as Shaleem-La-Lume, William Marshall as Hadji, Gilbert Price as the Mansa of Mali, Melba Moore as Marsinah, and George Bell as the Wazir. Ira Hawkins replaced Marshall prior to the Broadway opening. Following its Broadway run, it toured for more than a year with Kitt continuing in her starring role as Shaleem-La-Lume, Gregg Baker as Hadji, Bruce Hubbard as the Mansa and Vanessa Shaw as Marsinah.
Eartha Kitt onstage during the Broadway production of "Timbuktu!", a musical revision of “Kismet”, at the Mark Hellinger Theatre. (1978)
Eartha Kitt performs “Rahadlakum” from Timbuktu!
Half of this performance is just her reading a recipe and then screaming and speaking in tongues but it’s mesmerizing. I can’t believe she had this much power.
In 1978, Kismet was reset in Africa, reorchestrated (and slightly rewritten), and renamed Timbuktu! There was no full recording, but an LP of highlights -- a mix of soundboard recordings and pop covers -- was distributed to help advertise the show.
I’ve been fantasizing about a revival of this show. I think @arianadebose would absolutely kill in the Eartha Kitt role.
Eartha Kitt sings In the Beginning, Woman from the closing night of Timbuktu! [Broadway, 10 September 1978]
Singer and actress Melba Moore in a scene from the Broadway musical "Timbuktu!", 1978.
The commercial for the Broadway play Timbuktu!, starring Eartha Kitt and Melba Moore. It was a reworking of the musical Kismet and was set in 1361, in Timbuktu, in the Ancient Empire of Mali, West Africa.
