The Red Moon (Johnson and Cole)

[2][3] Labeled and marketed by its creators as a "sensation in red and black", the work has been classified variously by theatre scholars as a musical and an operetta.

[4] The Red Moon is set in the fictional town of Swamptown, Virginia, and on an Indian reservation somewhere in the Rocky Mountains.

[2] Along with Indian brave and Swamptown graduate Red Feather, Lowdog kidnaps Minnehaha and takes her back home to the reservation,[7] but she rebels from assimilating into Native life.

[5] Minnehaha is romantically pursued by Red Feather,[6] but desires instead to return to Swamptown to reunite with her boyfriend, Plunk Green.

[7] Meanwhile, Plunk Green and his pianist friend Slim Brown decide they must rescue Minnehaha, and the two arrive at the reservation disguised as a lawyer and a doctor.

[6] After several misadventures Plunk Green and Slim Brown succeed in outwitting Lowdog and Red Feather, and bring Minnehaha happily back home to Swamptown.

This decision to adopt biracial education drew criticism from some individuals in white society who feared unification between Blacks and Native Americans could lead to violence and insurrection.

Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow had been a tremendous success on Broadway in 1907, and this work prompted the creation of many American operettas in its immediate wake, including Cole and Johnson's The Red Moon.

[13] In addition to Cole and Johnson, the all-Black cast of The Red Moon included operatic soprano Abbie Mitchell as Minnehaha, Arthur Talbot as Chief Lowdog, Elizabeth Williams as Lucretia Martin, Andrew Tribble as Lily White, Theodore Pankey as Red Feather, and Fanny Wise as Truscalina White Nakomis among others.

Johnson was later made a sub-chief of this Iroquois tribe in 1921 in recognition of his efforts to "dignify stage representations of Indians".

[15] The New York Times dismissed the show's plot as "flimsy and uninteresting", but praised the performances of its stars and the music.

[13] However, these scholars also described the work as "a fresh amalgamation of 'Indian music', Tin Pan Alley syncopation, ballads, and dialect numbers".

[32] Cleveland State University professor of African American, African Diaspora, and American Cultural History Karen Sotiropoulos noted that The Red Moon was criticized by white critics for being "too white" because of its adoption of art forms other than stereotypical black musical comedy.