Directed by Arthur Egeli (Murder on the Cape), The Black Emperor of Broadway is the story of the first African-American leading man on Broadway, Charles Gilpin. Gilpin was cast by playwright, Eugene O’Neill to be the lead in his play “The Emperor Jones” in 1920, a time when “blackface” was the norm on stage. O’Neill and Gilpin clashed numerous times over the cultural representation of Gilpin’s Emperor Jones, and while O’Neill’s name became celebrated, Gilpin’s was tragically lost to history.