A year after the close of the American Civil War, America’s first homegrown musical, “The Black Crook,” premiered in New York. That timing probably has a lot to do with why the Broadway-style musical has come to be seen as American as apple pie. But it also now begs the question: Why aren’t there more singing Lincolns? For that, there’s Courtesy the Artists to fill the void. Made up of Malik Gaines and Alexandro Segade from the performance group My Barbarian, Courtesy the Artists channeled the same type of zany, yet critical theatrics the group’s known for.
