Staging Vaudeville for a Twenty-First-Century Audience
act is set off very prettily with exceptionally appropriate and artistic scenery in keeping and in character with this offering . ‘ The Sunny South ’ is a good act , away from the ordinary vaudeville offering and goes good here .” 10 The act continued to live up to expectations during performances in Buffalo and New York City the following year . 11 But over time , the act lost its appeal , sometimes as personnel changed , and sometimes because the audience simply grew tired of the act . This points to the fact that vaudeville audiences were made up of repeat customers , who generally went out to a show every week . While performances by the Sunny South in 1906 still went over well in Philadelphia and New York , in Cleveland , the manager complained that they were not as good as previously : “ had these people billed as fifteen colored comedians , singers and dancers . In the first place there are not fifteen , but ten , to continue in error , they are not comedians , and they can ’ t sing . Their dancing is excellent , in fact it is the whole act . Their opening was weak , and scores in the audience left the theatre . Their rapid-fire dancing at the finish is the only thing that carries the act . It is not the Sunny South of a year ago by any means .” 12
Even experienced vaudevillians could not rest on their laurels and while one poor showing did not necessarily mean an act was terminated or relegated to a lower circuit , a bad run could be fatal . Mediocre or disappointing acts were often re-booked in the hopes that performers had been able to improve their acts after they had the opportunity to run through it several times while incorporating criticism and feedback . This happened to the Sunny South which , after its poor showing in 1906 , returned to the stage in Cleveland the following year and received rave reviews . The manager wrote , “ This act without a doubt was the hit of the show . They certainly have improved since the last time they were here , and
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