History:
In 1983, Shades of Harlem was created at Brown
University by Songbirds Unlimited Productions
founder, Jeree Wade, as “Shades of the Cotton
Club”. It was a tribute to the Harlem she
had heard about, and longed to know, growing up
as a performer after the famed Renaissance had
passed. After recruiting her long-time musical
director, the renowned Frank Owens, to do the
music she enlisted young dancers from the Brown
University student body. Jeree called on friends
from her Harlem home, such as the Swinging Seniors
(gray-haired chorines who were all alumni of the
Cotton Club, other famous clubs, or Broadway)
to bring authenticity to the show.
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She
asked Frank Owens to help find a male interloper
for the trip down memory lane. He brought in singer,
actor and dancer, Ty Stephens, with whom he had
worked in the original Broadway production of
Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies”.
The Brown University production was a smash and
piqued the interest of many who wanted to see
the show move to New York.