Editing Timbuktu! (section)

==Production history==
The musical premiered on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] at the [[Mark Hellinger Theatre]] on March 1, 1978, and closed on September 10, 1978, after 221 performances and 22 previews.<ref name="The Broadway League 19782">{{Cite web |title=Timbuktu! Broadway @ Mark Hellinger Theatre |url=http://www.playbill.com/production/timbuktu-mark-hellinger-theatre-vault-0000005786 |access-date=December 14, 2021 |website=Playbill |language=en |archive-date=December 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211214195912/https://www.playbill.com/production/timbuktu-mark-hellinger-theatre-vault-0000005786 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="auto"/>

The original production starred [[Eartha Kitt]] as Shaleem-La-Lume, [[William Marshall (actor)|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.<ref name="auto">{{cite web |date=February 1, 1978 |title=Timbuktu! – Broadway Musical – Original |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/timbuktu-4043 |access-date=December 14, 2021 |publisher=Internet Broadway Database |archive-date=December 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211214212856/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/timbuktu-4043 |url-status=live }}</ref> It was directed, choreographed and costume designed by [[Geoffrey Holder]], with sets designed by [[Tony Straiges]]. [[Alan Eichler]] was associate producer.<ref name="auto"/> [[Gerald Bordman]] noted that the sets and costumes had "a Ziegfeldian opulence." New songs based on African folk music were added to provide "some tonal verisimiltude."<ref>Bordman, Gerald Martin.  [https://books.google.com/books?id=YiBaRas9jTwC&dq=%22Eartha+Kitt%22+Timbuktu%21&pg=PA750   ''American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle'', "Act Six:Full Circuit; or, Return of the Brits"]  ''American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle'' (3rd ED.), Oxford University Press US, 2001, {{ISBN|0-19-513074-X}}, p. 750</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-geoffrey-holder-dead-20141006-story.html|title=Geoffrey Holder, actor and Tony-award winning director, dies at 84|date=October 6, 2014|website=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>