Santa Ain't Black

cabaret song for baritenor voice (PDF Download)

INSTRUMENTATION: piano/vocal

DURATION: 3:15

PAGES: 8

WORLD PREMIERE: New York Public Library of the Performing Arts, 2011

This song is intended for performance by a Black singer.

I was invited to contribute a song to the Broadway’s Future concert series for emerging musical theatre writers at the NYPL (which my husband calls “your Disneyland”, and he’s right!) back in 2011. It was the height of many panic cycles of “In this country, we say MERRY CHRISTMAS!” and, of course, tedious freakouts about Santa Claus’s true racial identity. What could I do but enlist the brilliant John-Andrew Morrison to help me give the finger to all that nonsense? We’ve been privileged to perform it many times around NYC over the years. It’s the closest I’ll ever get to writing a heartwarming holiday classic.