Show Boat
Encyclopedia
Show Boat is a musical
in two acts with music by Jerome Kern
and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
. It was originally produced in New York in 1927 and in London in 1928, and was based on the 1926 novel of the same name
by Edna Ferber
. The plot chronicles the lives of those living and working on the Cotton Blossom, a Mississippi River show boat
, from 1880 to 1927. The show's dominant themes include racial prejudice and tragic, enduring love.
Show Boat is widely considered one of the most influential works of the American musical theatre. As the first true American "musical play", it marked a significant departure from operetta
s, light musical comedies
of the 1890s and early 20th century, and the "Follies"-type musical revue
s that had defined Broadway
. According to The Complete Book of Light Opera,
The quality of the musical was recognized immediately by the critics. Show Boat is still frequently revived, not only because of its songs, but also because its libretto
is considered to be exceptionally good for a musical of its era. At the time, trivial, unrealistic, and silly plots were nearly expected in musical stage productions, just as they were in the later Busby Berkeley
"putting-on-a-show" movie musicals, the Astaire
-Rogers
films, and the Betty Grable
Technicolor
extravaganzas. Recent revivals of Show Boat have won both the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical
(1995) and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival (2008). Awards for Broadway shows did not exist in 1927 when the original production of the show premiered, nor in 1932, when its first revival was staged.
, Edna Ferber spent several weeks on the James Adams Floating Palace Theater in Bath, North Carolina
, gathering material about a disappearing American entertainment venue, the river showboat
. In a few weeks, she gained what she called a "treasure trove of show-boat material, human, touching, true." Jerome Kern
was impressed by the novel and, hoping to adapt it as a musical, asked the critic Alexander Woollcott
to introduce him to Ferber in October 1926. Woollcott introduced them that evening during the intermission of Kern's latest musical, Criss Cross.
Ferber granted Kern and his collaborator Oscar Hammerstein II
the rights to set her novel to music. After composing most of the first act songs, Kern and Hammerstein auditioned their material for producer Florenz Ziegfeld
, thinking that only he could create the elaborate production necessary for Ferber's sprawling work. Ziegfeld was impressed with the show and agreed to produce it, writing the next day, "This is the best musical comedy I have ever been fortunate to get a hold of; I am thrilled to produce it, this show is the opportunity of my life..."Show Boat, with its serious and dramatic nature, was considered an unusual choice for Ziegfeld, previously known mainly for revues such as the Ziegfeld Follies
.
Though Ziegfeld anticipated opening his new theatre
on Sixth Avenue with Show Boat, the epic nature of the work required an unusually long gestation period and extensive changes during out-of-town tryouts. Impatient with Kern and Hammerstein and worried about their keeping a serious tone, Ziegfeld decided to open his theatre in February 1927 with Rio Rita
, a musical by Kern's collaborator Guy Bolton
. When Rio Rita proved to be a success, Show Boats Broadway
opening was delayed until Rita could be moved to another theater.
Act I
In 1887, the show boat Cotton Blossom arrives at the river dock in Natchez, Mississippi
. Its owner Cap'n Andy Hawks introduces his actors to the crowd on the levee. A fist fight breaks out between Steve Baker, the leading man of the troupe, and Pete, a rough engineer
who had been making passes at Steve's wife, the leading lady Julie La Verne
. Steve knocks Pete down, and Pete swears revenge, suggesting he knows a dark secret about Julie. Cap'n Andy pretends to the shocked crowd that the fight was a preview of one of the melodramas to be performed. The troupe exits with the showboat band.
A handsome riverboat gambler, Gaylord Ravenal
, appears on the levee and is taken with eighteen-year-old Magnolia ("Nolie") Hawks, an aspiring performer and the daughter of Cap'n Andy and his wife Parthy Ann. Magnolia is likewise smitten with Ravenal ("Make Believe
"). She seeks advice from Joe, a black dock worker aboard the boat. He replies that there are "lots like [Ravenal] on the river" and, as Magnolia excitedly goes inside the boat to tell her friend Julie about the handsome stranger, Joe mutters that she ought to ask the river for advice. He and the other dock workers reflect on the wisdom and indifference of "Ol' Man River
", who, no matter what, "jes' keeps rollin' along".
Magnolia finds Julie inside and announces that she's in love. Julie cautions her that this stranger could be just a "no-account river fellow." Magnolia innocently retorts that if she found out he was "no-account," she'd stop loving him. Julie warns her that it's not that easy to stop loving someone, explaining that she'll always love Steve ("Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man
"). Queenie walks in and asks why Julie knows that song; Queenie says she has only heard "colored folks" sing that song. Magnolia says that Julie sings it all the time, and when Queenie asks if she can sing the entire song, Julie obliges.
During the rehearsal for that evening, Julie and Steve learn that the town sheriff is coming to arrest them. Steve takes out a large pocket knife and makes a cut on the back of her hand, sucking the blood and swallowing it. Pete returns with the sheriff, who insists that the show not go on, because Julie is a mulatto
woman married to a white man, and local laws prohibit miscegenation
. Julie admits that she is a mulatto, or mixed race. Though he is white, Steve, because he swallowed Julie's blood (and therefore has at least "one drop of black blood"), claims he is also mulatto. The troupe backs him up, boosted by the ship's pilot
Windy McClain, a longtime friend of the sheriff. The sheriff lets the couple go, but they prepare to leave town because blacks were prohibited at the time from acting onstage. Cap'n Andy fires Pete for his actions. Gaylord Ravenal returns and asks for passage on the boat. Andy hires him as the new leading man, and assigns his daughter Magnolia as the new leading lady, over her mother's objections. Julie leaves with Steve.
Weeks later, Magnolia and Ravenal have been a hit with the crowds and have fallen in love. He proposes to Magnolia, and she accepts. ("You Are Love
") The two become engaged and make plans to marry the next day while Parthy, who disapproves of him, is out of town. Parthy has discovered that Ravenal once killed a man. She arrives with the Sheriff at the wedding festivities, but the Sheriff says that Ravenal was acquitted. Cap'n Andy calls Parthy "narrow-minded" and defends Ravenal by announcing that he also killed a man. Parthy faints, and the wedding party proceeds with the ceremony.
Act II
Six years have passed, and it is 1893. Gaylord and Magnolia have moved to Chicago
, where they make a precarious living from Gaylord's gambling. By 1903, they have a daughter, Kim, and after years of varying income, they are broke and rent a room in a boarding house. Depressed over his inability to support his family, Gaylord leaves Magnolia. Frank and Ellie, two actors on the boat looking for a place to live, discover that Magnolia is living in the rooms they want to rent. The old friends seek a singing job for Magnolia at the Trocadero, the club where they are doing a New Year's show. Julie is working there, but has fallen into drinking after having been abandoned by Steve. At a rehearsal, she tries out the new song Bill
, and while singing it, she is obviously thinking of her husband and performs the song with great emotion. From her dressing room, she hears Magnolia singing "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" for her audition, the song Julie taught her years ago. Julie secretly leaves her role so that Magnolia can fill it without learning of her sacrifice.
On New Year's Eve, Andy and Parthy go to Chicago for a surprise visit to Magnolia. He goes to the Trocadero without his wife, and sees Magnolia overcome with emotion and nearly booed off stage. Andy rallies the crowd by starting a sing-along of the standard, "After the Ball
". Magnolia becomes a great musical star.
It is now 1927. An aged Joe on the Cotton Blossom sings a reprise of "Ol' Man River". Cap'n Andy has a chance meeting with Ravenal and arranges a reunion with Magnolia. Andy knows she is retiring and returning to the Cotton Blossom with Kim, who has become a Broadway star. Ravenal sings a reprise of "You Are Love" to the offstage Magnolia. Although uncertain about asking her to take him back, Magnolia, who has never stopped loving him, greets him warmly and does. As the happy couple walks up the boat's gangplank, Joe and the cast sing the last verse of "Ol' Man River".
Act 1
Act 2
" and "Let's Start the New Year", were cut from the show. "Mis'ry's Comin' Round" was nevertheless published in the complete vocal score, and fragments of it are still heard in the scoring, notably in the original 1927 overture and in the miscegenation scene. The 1988 album reinstated the entire song, and it was also included in the 1994 Hal Prince revival. "Let's Start the New Year" was performed in the 1989 Paper Mill Playhouse production.
The show is generally cut in modern productions, although productions still run to nearly three hours. Two songs, "Till Good Luck Comes My Way" (sung by Ravenal) and "Hey Feller!" (sung by Queenie) were written mainly to cover scenery changes and were discarded beginning with the 1946 revival, although "Till Good Luck" was included in the 1993 Harold Prince revival of the show. The comedy song "I Might Fall Back On You" was also cut beginning in 1946, although it was restored in the 1951 film version and several stage productions since the 1980s. On record, "Hey Feller!" appears only on the 1988 EMI album. Kern and Hammerstein wrote two new songs for revivals and three more for the 1936 film version.
The score also includes four songs not originally written for Show Boat: "Bill
" was originally written by Kern and P. G. Wodehouse
in 1917 and was reworked by Hammerstein for Show Boat. Two other songs not by Kern and Hammerstein, "Goodbye, My Lady Love" by Joseph E. Howard
and "After the Ball
" by Charles K. Harris
, were included by the authors for historical atmosphere and are included in revivals. The New Year's Eve scene also features an instrumental version of There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight
.
Some of the following numbers have been cut from subsequent productions, as noted below: (The songs Ol' Man River, Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man, and Bill
have been included in every stage and film production of Show Boat)
Additional numbers have been included in films and revivals as follows:
the production in a pre-Broadway tour from November 15 to December 19, 1927. The locations included the National Theatre
in Washington, D.C.
, the Nixon Theatre in Pittsburgh, the Ohio Theatre in Cleveland, and the Erlanger Theatre in Philadelphia. The show opened on Broadway at the Ziegfeld Theatre
on December 27, 1927. The critics were immediately enthusiastic, and the show was a great popular success, running a year and a half, for a total of 572 performances.
The production was staged by Oscar Hammerstein II. Choreography for the show was by Sammy Lee. The original cast included Norma Terris
as Magnolia Hawks and her daughter Kim (as an adult), Howard Marsh
as Gaylord Ravenal, Helen Morgan
as Julie LaVerne, Jules Bledsoe
as Joe, Charles Winninger
as Cap'n Andy Hawks, Edna May Oliver
as Parthy Ann Hawks, Sammy White
as Frank Schultz, Eva Puck
as Ellie May Chipley, and Tess Gardella
as Queenie. The orchestrator was Robert Russell Bennett
, and the conductor was Victor Baravalle
. The scenic design
for the original production was by Joseph Urban
, who had worked with Ziegfeld for many years in his Follies
and had designed the elaborate new Ziegfeld Theatre itself. Costumes were designed by John Harkrider.
In his opening night review for the New York Times, Brooks Atkinson
called the book's adaptation "intelligently made", and the production one of "unimpeachable skill and taste." He termed Norma Terris "a revelation"; Charles Winninger "extraordinarily persuasive and convincing"; and Jules Bledsoe's singing "remarkably effective".
who sings "Ol' Man River", was expanded from the novel and written specifically by Kern for Paul Robeson
, already a noted actor and singer. Although he is the actor most identified with the role and the song, he was unavailable for the original production due to its opening delay. Jules Bledsoe
premiered the part. Robeson played Joe in four notable productions of Show Boat: the 1928 premier London production; the 1932 Broadway revival; the 1936 film version; and a 1940 stage revival in Los Angeles
.
Reviewing the 1932 Broadway revival, the critic Brooks Atkinson
described Robeson's performance: "Mr. Robeson has a touch of genius. It is not merely his voice, which is one of the richest organs on the stage. It is his understanding that gives 'Old Man River' an epic lift. When he sings...you realize that Jerome Kern's spiritual has reached its final expression."
as Magnolia. Hattie McDaniel
played Queenie in a 1933 West Coast production, joined by tenor Allan Jones as Ravenal.
Dunne was soon offered a contract by RKO and appeared in the 1936 Universal Studios
film adaptation, as did Jones as Ravenal. It featured Charles Winninger (Cap'n Andy), Helen Morgan (Julie), Sammy White (Frank), and Francis X. Mahoney (Rubberface) repeating their original Broadway stage roles, with Hattie McDaniel joining them as Queenie.
Show Boat was revived
by Ziegfeld on Broadway in 1932 at the Casino Theatre
with most of the original cast, but with Paul Robeson as Joe and Dennis King
as Ravenal. Further Broadway revivals were produced in 1946 (a return to the Ziegfeld Theatre); in 1948 and 1954 at New York City Center
; and in 1983 at the Uris Theatre
(presented by Douglas Urbanski
). Other American productions include one in 1966 at the New York State Theater by the Music Theater of Lincoln Center company, and one in 1983 at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., starring Mickey Rooney
as Cap'n Andy.
In 1989 the Paper Mill Playhouse
of Millburn, New Jersey
mounted an important revival that tried to recapture Show Boats creators' original intentions. Described in the New York Times as coming "close to being a full visual realization of the piece as it was meant to be seen", the production restored numbers discarded from the show in the previous decades. It was directed by Robert Johanson and starred Eddie Bracken
as Cap'n Andy. The Paper Mill production was preserved on videotape and broadcast on PBS
.
Livent Inc. presented the most recent major production of Show Boat on Broadway in 1994. Produced and directed by Harold Prince, it premiered in Toronto, Ontario in 1993 prior to opening in New York on October 2, 1994 at the George Gershwin Theatre
. It ran for 947 performances, Broadway's longest-running Show Boat to date. This production went on tour, playing at the Kennedy Center; and it was also staged in London and Melbourne, Australia. Prince's production revived interest in the show by tightening the book, dropping and adding songs cut in various productions, and highlighting its racial elements. Perhaps the most notable change in the score was Prince's transforming "Why Do I Love You?" from a duet between Magnolia and Ravenal to a lullaby sung by Parthy Ann to Magnolia's baby girl. The change was partly to accommodate the song's being performed by stage actress Elaine Stritch
. The love duet for Magnolia and Ravenal "I Have the Room Above Her", originally written by Kern and Hammerstein for the 1936 film, was added to the production. Two new mime and dance "Montages" in Act 2 depicted the passage of time through changing styles of dance and music.
. The original London production opened May 3, 1928 at the Drury Lane Theatre
and featured among the cast, Edith Day
as Magnolia, Paul Robeson as Joe, and Alberta Hunter
as Queenie. Mabel Mercer
, later famed as a cabaret singer, was in the chorus. Other West End presentations include a July 1971 production at the Adelphi Theatre
, which ran for 909 performances, and a 1998 production at the Prince Edward Theatre
. Other notable revivals in England have been the joint Opera North
/Royal Shakespeare Company
production of 1989 and the June 2006 production directed by Francesca Zambello
, conducted by David Charles Abell
and presented by Raymond Gubbay
at London's Royal Albert Hall
– the first fully staged musical production in the history of that venue.
at least seven times. Due to network censorship rules many of the radio productions eliminated the miscegenation aspect of the plot. A notable exception was the 1940 Cavalcade of America broadcast.
There have been many other studio cast recordings of Show Boat in addition to those mentioned above. The soundtrack of the 1936 film version has appeared on a so-called "bootleg" CD label called Xeno.
musical, in that both black and white performers appeared and sang on stage together. Ziegfeld’s
Follies
allowed solo African American
performers like Bert Williams
, but would never have had a black woman in the chorus. Show Boat had two choruses — a black chorus and a white chorus, and one commentator noted that "Hammerstein uses the African-American chorus as essentially a Greek chorus
, providing clear commentary on the proceedings, whereas the white choruses sing of the not-quite-real."
Show Boat was the first Broadway musical to seriously depict an interracial marriage
, as in Edna Ferber's original novel, and to feature a character of mixed race who was "passing
" for white. The musical comedy Whoopee!
, starring Eddie Cantor
, supposedly depicted a romance between a Native American
man and a white woman. In Whoopee!, however, the Native American character turns out to be white.
s in the lyrics (in fact it is the very first word in the opening chorus of the show), and also the historical portrayal of blacks serving as passive laborers and servants. The show originally opened with the black chorus onstage singing:
In subsequent productions, "niggers" has been changed to "colored folk," to "darkies" and in one choice, "Here we all," as in "Here we all work on the Mississippi. Here we all work while the white folk play." In the 1966 Lincoln Center production of the show, produced during the height of the Civil Rights
struggle, this section of the opening chorus was completely omitted rather than simply having the lyric changed. The 1988 CD for EMI restored the original lyric, while the Harold Prince revival chose "colored folk".
Others believe that Kern and Hammerstein wrote the song to give a sympathetic voice to an oppressed people, and that they used the word in an ironic way, when it was so often used in a derogatory way; they were dramatically alerting the audience to the realities of racism:
The word has never been used in film versions of the musical. In the show, the Sheriff refers to Steve and Julie as having "nigger blood", while in the 1936 and 1951 film versions, this was changed to "Negro blood". Likewise, the unsympathetic Pete calls Queenie a "nigger" in the stage version, but refers to her as "colored" in the 1936 film, and does not use either word in the 1951 film.
Those who consider Show Boat racially insensitive often note that the dialogue and lyrics of the black characters (especially the stevedore
Joe and his wife Queenie) and choruses use various forms of African American Vernacular English
. An example of this is shown in the following text:
Whether or not such language is an accurate reflection of the vernacular of blacks in Mississippi at the time, the effect of its usage has offended critics who see it as perpetuating racial stereotypes. The character Queenie (who sings the above verses) was in the original production played not by an African American but rather by the Italian-American actress Tess Gardella
in blackface
(Gardella was perhaps best known for portraying Aunt Jemima
in blackface). Attempts by non-black writers to imitate black language stereotypically in songs like "Ol' Man River
" was alleged to be offensive, a claim that was repeated eight years later by critics of Porgy and Bess
. However, even these critics sometimes admit that the intentions of Hammerstein were noble, since "Ol' Man River"' was the song in which he first found his lyrical voice, compressing the suffering, resignation, and anger of an entire race into 24 taut lines and doing it so naturally that it's no wonder folks assume the song's a Negro spiritual."
The theatre critics and veterans Richard Eyre
and Nicholas Wright believe that Show Boat was revolutionary, not only because it was a radical departure from the previous style of plotless revues, but because it was a show written by non-blacks that portrayed blacks sympathetically rather than condescendingly:
) have been cancelled because of objections.
Such cancellations have been criticised by supporters of the arts
. After planned performances by an opera
company in Middlesbrough
, England
were "stopped because [they] would be 'distasteful' to ethnic minorities", a local newspaper declared that the actions were "surely taking political correctness too far". A British theatre writer was concerned that "the kind of censorship we've been talking about — for censorship it is — actually militates against a truly integrated society, for it emphasises differences. It puts a wall around groups within society, dividing people by creating metaphorical ghettos, and prevents mutual understanding." Specifically, the cancellation was based on protests of plans to have all the black roles to be played in this production by white actors in blackface, as apparently no black actors had been hired.
As attitudes toward race relations have changed, producers and directors have altered some content to make the musical more "politically correct"
: "Show Boat, more than many musicals, was subject to cuts and revisions within a handful of years after its first performance, all of which altered the dramatic balance of the play."
actually moved them), with their presence constantly commenting on the racial disparities. After a New Year's Eve ball, all the streamers fell on the floor and African Americans immediately began sweeping them away. A montage in the second act showed time passing: it had the revolving door of the Palmer House
in Chicago, with newspaper headlines being shown in quick succession, and snippets of slow motion to highlight a specific moment, accompanied by brief snippets of Ol' Man River. African-American dancers were seen performing a specific dance, and this would change to a scene showing white dancers performing "the same dance. This was meant to illustrate how white performers "appropriated" the music and dancing styles of African Americans. Earlier productions of Show Boat, even the 1927 stage original and the 1936 film version, did not go this far in social commentary.
During the production in Toronto, many black community leaders and their supporters launched widespread opposition and protests to the show, often using "black hecklers shouting insults and waving placards reading SHOW BOAT SPREADS LIES AND HATE and SHOW BOAT = CULTURAL GENOCIDE" in front of the theatre. Some sympathetic to the protesters thought it was ironic that a supposedly anti-black show was receiving attention and support, while the black community in Toronto was facing economic and social problems. A journalist said,
While Hal Prince's production of Show Boat met criticism in Toronto, various theatre critics in New York
felt that Prince highlighted racial inequality in his production as a means of showing its injustice, as well as to show the historical suffering of blacks. A critic noted that he included "an absolutely beautiful piece of music cut from the original production and from the movie ["Mis'ry's Comin' Round"]... a haunting gospel melody sung by the black chorus. The addition of this number is so successful because it salutes the dignity and the pure talent of the black workers and allows them to shine for a brief moment on the center stage of the showboat".
has commented that it is a "racially flawed story", and the African-Canadian writer M. Nourbese Philip claims
On the other hand, supporters of the musical believe that the depictions of racism should be regarded not as stereotyping blacks but rather satirizing
the common national attitudes that both held those stereotypes and reinforced them through discrimination. In other words, just as quoting an out-of-context line from a play and claiming that it is the view of the playwright is absurd and deceptive, the fact that a dramatic or literary work portrays racist attitudes and institutions does not mean that it endorses them – in the words of The New Yorker
theatre critic John Lahr
, "describing racism doesn't make Show Boat racist. The production is meticulous in honoring the influence of black culture not just in the making of the nation's wealth but, through music, in the making of its modern spirit."
Broadway writers have long used the musical as a medium to call for tolerance and racial harmony, as in Finian's Rainbow
and (by Hammerstein) in South Pacific
. Those who attempt to understand works like Show Boat and Porgy and Bess through the eyes of their creators usually consider that the show "was a statement AGAINST racism. That was the point of Edna Ferber's novel. That was the point of the show. That's how Oscar wrote it.... I think this is about as far from racism as you can get." Perhaps the strongest argument in defense of Show Boat lies in an understanding of the socially concerned intentions, aims, and backgrounds of its authors. According to Rabbi Alan Berg, Kern and Hammerstein's score to Show Boat is "a tremendous expression of the ethics of tolerance and compassion." As Harold Prince (not Kern, to whom the quote has been mistakenly attributed) states in the original production notes to his 1993 production of the show:
Oscar Hammerstein's commitment to idealizing and encouraging tolerance theatrically started with his libretto to Show Boat. It can be seen in his later works, many of which were set to music by Richard Rodgers
. Carmen Jones
is an attempt to present a modern version of the classic French opera
through the experiences of African Americans during wartime, and South Pacific
explores interracial marriage
and prejudice. Finally, The King and I
deals with different cultures' preconceived notions regarding each other and the possibility for cultural inclusiveness in societies.
Regarding the original author of Show Boat, Ann Shapiro states that
Whether or not the show is racist, many contend that productions of it should continue as it serves as a history lesson of American race relations. According to African-American opera singer Phillip Lamar Boykin, who played the role of Joe in a 2000 tour,
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
in two acts with music by Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...
. It was originally produced in New York in 1927 and in London in 1928, and was based on the 1926 novel of the same name
Show Boat (novel)
Show Boat is a 1926 novel by American author and dramatist Edna Ferber. It chronicles the lives of three generations of performers on the Cotton Blossom, a floating theater that travels between small towns on the banks of the Mississippi, from the 1880s to the 1920s...
by Edna Ferber
Edna Ferber
Edna Ferber was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels were especially popular and included the Pulitzer Prize-winning So Big , Show Boat , and Giant .-Early years:Ferber was born August 15, 1885, in Kalamazoo, Michigan,...
. The plot chronicles the lives of those living and working on the Cotton Blossom, a Mississippi River show boat
Showboat
A showboat, or show boat, was a form of theater that traveled along the waterways of the United States, especially along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers . A showboat was basically a barge that resembled a long, flat-roofed house, and in order to move down the river, it was pushed by a small tugboat...
, from 1880 to 1927. The show's dominant themes include racial prejudice and tragic, enduring love.
Show Boat is widely considered one of the most influential works of the American musical theatre. As the first true American "musical play", it marked a significant departure from operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
s, light musical comedies
Edwardian Musical Comedy
Edwardian musical comedies were British musical theatre shows from the period between the early 1890s, when the Gilbert and Sullivan operas' dominance had ended, until the rise of the American musicals by Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart, George Gershwin and Cole Porter following World War I.Between...
of the 1890s and early 20th century, and the "Follies"-type musical revue
Revue
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932...
s that had defined Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
. According to The Complete Book of Light Opera,
"Here we come to a completely new genre – the musical play as distinguished from musical comedy. Now... the play was the thing, and everything else was subservient to that play. Now... came complete integration of song, humor and production numbers into a single and inextricable artistic entity."
The quality of the musical was recognized immediately by the critics. Show Boat is still frequently revived, not only because of its songs, but also because its libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
is considered to be exceptionally good for a musical of its era. At the time, trivial, unrealistic, and silly plots were nearly expected in musical stage productions, just as they were in the later Busby Berkeley
Busby Berkeley
Busby Berkeley was a highly influential Hollywood movie director and musical choreographer. Berkeley was famous for his elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns...
"putting-on-a-show" movie musicals, the Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
-Rogers
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....
films, and the Betty Grable
Betty Grable
Elizabeth Ruth "Betty" Grable was an American actress, dancer and singer.Her iconic bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in the LIFE magazine project "100 Photos that Changed the World"...
Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
extravaganzas. Recent revivals of Show Boat have won both the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical
Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical
The Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical has been awarded since 1994. Before that time, both plays and musicals were considered together for the Tony Award for Best Revival....
(1995) and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival (2008). Awards for Broadway shows did not exist in 1927 when the original production of the show premiered, nor in 1932, when its first revival was staged.
Background
In doing research for her proposed novel Show BoatShow Boat (novel)
Show Boat is a 1926 novel by American author and dramatist Edna Ferber. It chronicles the lives of three generations of performers on the Cotton Blossom, a floating theater that travels between small towns on the banks of the Mississippi, from the 1880s to the 1920s...
, Edna Ferber spent several weeks on the James Adams Floating Palace Theater in Bath, North Carolina
Bath, North Carolina
Bath is a town in Beaufort County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 268 at the 2008 census. Incorporated in 1705, Bath was North Carolina's first port of entry. Bath is North Carolina's oldest town, celebrating its 300th anniversary in 2005...
, gathering material about a disappearing American entertainment venue, the river showboat
Showboat
A showboat, or show boat, was a form of theater that traveled along the waterways of the United States, especially along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers . A showboat was basically a barge that resembled a long, flat-roofed house, and in order to move down the river, it was pushed by a small tugboat...
. In a few weeks, she gained what she called a "treasure trove of show-boat material, human, touching, true." Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
was impressed by the novel and, hoping to adapt it as a musical, asked the critic Alexander Woollcott
Alexander Woollcott
Alexander Humphreys Woollcott was an American critic and commentator for The New Yorker magazine and a member of the Algonquin Round Table....
to introduce him to Ferber in October 1926. Woollcott introduced them that evening during the intermission of Kern's latest musical, Criss Cross.
Ferber granted Kern and his collaborator Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...
the rights to set her novel to music. After composing most of the first act songs, Kern and Hammerstein auditioned their material for producer Florenz Ziegfeld
Florenz Ziegfeld
Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. , , was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies , inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris. He also produced the musical Show Boat...
, thinking that only he could create the elaborate production necessary for Ferber's sprawling work. Ziegfeld was impressed with the show and agreed to produce it, writing the next day, "This is the best musical comedy I have ever been fortunate to get a hold of; I am thrilled to produce it, this show is the opportunity of my life..."Show Boat, with its serious and dramatic nature, was considered an unusual choice for Ziegfeld, previously known mainly for revues such as the Ziegfeld Follies
Ziegfeld Follies
The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....
.
Though Ziegfeld anticipated opening his new theatre
Ziegfeld Theatre
The Ziegfeld Theatre was a Broadway theater located at the intersection of Sixth Avenue and 54th Street in Manhattan, New York City. It was built in 1927 and, despite public protests, was razed in 1966....
on Sixth Avenue with Show Boat, the epic nature of the work required an unusually long gestation period and extensive changes during out-of-town tryouts. Impatient with Kern and Hammerstein and worried about their keeping a serious tone, Ziegfeld decided to open his theatre in February 1927 with Rio Rita
Rio Rita (musical)
Rio Rita is a 1927 stage musical with a book by Guy Bolton and Fred Thompson , music by Harry Tierney, lyrics by Joseph McCarthy, and produced by Florenz Ziegfeld...
, a musical by Kern's collaborator Guy Bolton
Guy Bolton
Guy Reginald Bolton was a British-American playwright and writer of musical comedies. Born in England and educated in France and the U.S., he trained as an architect but turned to writing. Bolton preferred working in collaboration with others, principally the English writers P. G...
. When Rio Rita proved to be a success, Show Boats Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
opening was delayed until Rita could be moved to another theater.
Synopsis
Note: There is no definitive version of the libretto of Show Boat, although the basic plot has always remained the same; minor revisions have been made by the creators, and subsequent producers and directors over the years.Act I
In 1887, the show boat Cotton Blossom arrives at the river dock in Natchez, Mississippi
Natchez, Mississippi
Natchez is the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. With a total population of 18,464 , it is the largest community and the only incorporated municipality within Adams County...
. Its owner Cap'n Andy Hawks introduces his actors to the crowd on the levee. A fist fight breaks out between Steve Baker, the leading man of the troupe, and Pete, a rough engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
who had been making passes at Steve's wife, the leading lady Julie La Verne
Julie Dozier
Julie Dozier is a character in Edna Ferber's 1926 novel Show Boat. In Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's classic musical version of it, which opened on Broadway on December 27, 1927, her stage name is Julie La Verne. She is exposed as Julie Dozier in Act I...
. Steve knocks Pete down, and Pete swears revenge, suggesting he knows a dark secret about Julie. Cap'n Andy pretends to the shocked crowd that the fight was a preview of one of the melodramas to be performed. The troupe exits with the showboat band.
A handsome riverboat gambler, Gaylord Ravenal
Gaylord Ravenal
Gaylord Ravenal is the leading male character in both Edna Ferber's novel Show Boat and in the famous Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II musical play of the same name, based on the novel. He is a compulsive riverboat gambler, and he becomes leading man of the show boat Cotton Blossom at the same time...
, appears on the levee and is taken with eighteen-year-old Magnolia ("Nolie") Hawks, an aspiring performer and the daughter of Cap'n Andy and his wife Parthy Ann. Magnolia is likewise smitten with Ravenal ("Make Believe
Make Believe (Jerome Kern song)
"Make Believe" is a show tune from the 1927 Broadway musical Show Boat with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.In the show, it is first sung as a duet by the characters Gaylord Ravenal, a handsome riverboat gambler, and the teenage Magnolia Hawks, an aspiring performer and...
"). She seeks advice from Joe, a black dock worker aboard the boat. He replies that there are "lots like [Ravenal] on the river" and, as Magnolia excitedly goes inside the boat to tell her friend Julie about the handsome stranger, Joe mutters that she ought to ask the river for advice. He and the other dock workers reflect on the wisdom and indifference of "Ol' Man River
Ol' Man River
"Ol' Man River" is a song in the 1927 musical Show Boat that expresses the African American hardship and struggles of the time with the endless, uncaring flow of the Mississippi River; it is sung from the point-of-view of a dock worker on a showboat, and is the most famous song from the show...
", who, no matter what, "jes' keeps rollin' along".
Magnolia finds Julie inside and announces that she's in love. Julie cautions her that this stranger could be just a "no-account river fellow." Magnolia innocently retorts that if she found out he was "no-account," she'd stop loving him. Julie warns her that it's not that easy to stop loving someone, explaining that she'll always love Steve ("Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man
Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man
"Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" with music by Jerome Kern, and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, is one of the most famous songs from their classic 1927 musical play Show Boat, adapted from Edna Ferber's novel.-Context:...
"). Queenie walks in and asks why Julie knows that song; Queenie says she has only heard "colored folks" sing that song. Magnolia says that Julie sings it all the time, and when Queenie asks if she can sing the entire song, Julie obliges.
During the rehearsal for that evening, Julie and Steve learn that the town sheriff is coming to arrest them. Steve takes out a large pocket knife and makes a cut on the back of her hand, sucking the blood and swallowing it. Pete returns with the sheriff, who insists that the show not go on, because Julie is a mulatto
Mulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
woman married to a white man, and local laws prohibit miscegenation
Miscegenation
Miscegenation is the mixing of different racial groups through marriage, cohabitation, sexual relations, and procreation....
. Julie admits that she is a mulatto, or mixed race. Though he is white, Steve, because he swallowed Julie's blood (and therefore has at least "one drop of black blood"), claims he is also mulatto. The troupe backs him up, boosted by the ship's pilot
Maritime pilot
A pilot is a mariner who guides ships through dangerous or congested waters, such as harbours or river mouths. With the exception of the Panama Canal, the pilot is only an advisor, as the captain remains in legal, overriding command of the vessel....
Windy McClain, a longtime friend of the sheriff. The sheriff lets the couple go, but they prepare to leave town because blacks were prohibited at the time from acting onstage. Cap'n Andy fires Pete for his actions. Gaylord Ravenal returns and asks for passage on the boat. Andy hires him as the new leading man, and assigns his daughter Magnolia as the new leading lady, over her mother's objections. Julie leaves with Steve.
Weeks later, Magnolia and Ravenal have been a hit with the crowds and have fallen in love. He proposes to Magnolia, and she accepts. ("You Are Love
You Are Love
You Are Love is a song by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II from their classic 1927 musical play Show Boat. It is sung twice in the show - first, by Magnolia Hawks, the heroine, and riverboat gambler Gaylord Ravenal when they agree to marry near the end of Act I, and again in the penultimate...
") The two become engaged and make plans to marry the next day while Parthy, who disapproves of him, is out of town. Parthy has discovered that Ravenal once killed a man. She arrives with the Sheriff at the wedding festivities, but the Sheriff says that Ravenal was acquitted. Cap'n Andy calls Parthy "narrow-minded" and defends Ravenal by announcing that he also killed a man. Parthy faints, and the wedding party proceeds with the ceremony.
Act II
Six years have passed, and it is 1893. Gaylord and Magnolia have moved to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, where they make a precarious living from Gaylord's gambling. By 1903, they have a daughter, Kim, and after years of varying income, they are broke and rent a room in a boarding house. Depressed over his inability to support his family, Gaylord leaves Magnolia. Frank and Ellie, two actors on the boat looking for a place to live, discover that Magnolia is living in the rooms they want to rent. The old friends seek a singing job for Magnolia at the Trocadero, the club where they are doing a New Year's show. Julie is working there, but has fallen into drinking after having been abandoned by Steve. At a rehearsal, she tries out the new song Bill
Bill (Show Boat)
"Bill" is a song heard in Act II of Kern and Hammerstein's classic 1927 musical Show Boat. The song was written for Kern and P.G. Wodehouse's 1917 musical Oh, Lady! Lady!! for Vivienne Segal to perform, but withdrawn because it was considered too melancholy for that show...
, and while singing it, she is obviously thinking of her husband and performs the song with great emotion. From her dressing room, she hears Magnolia singing "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" for her audition, the song Julie taught her years ago. Julie secretly leaves her role so that Magnolia can fill it without learning of her sacrifice.
On New Year's Eve, Andy and Parthy go to Chicago for a surprise visit to Magnolia. He goes to the Trocadero without his wife, and sees Magnolia overcome with emotion and nearly booed off stage. Andy rallies the crowd by starting a sing-along of the standard, "After the Ball
After the Ball (song)
After the Ball is a popular song written in 1891 by Charles K. Harris. The song is a classic waltz in 3/4 time. In the song, an older man tells his niece why he has never married. He saw his sweetheart kissing another man at a ball, and he refused to listen to her explanation...
". Magnolia becomes a great musical star.
It is now 1927. An aged Joe on the Cotton Blossom sings a reprise of "Ol' Man River". Cap'n Andy has a chance meeting with Ravenal and arranges a reunion with Magnolia. Andy knows she is retiring and returning to the Cotton Blossom with Kim, who has become a Broadway star. Ravenal sings a reprise of "You Are Love" to the offstage Magnolia. Although uncertain about asking her to take him back, Magnolia, who has never stopped loving him, greets him warmly and does. As the happy couple walks up the boat's gangplank, Joe and the cast sing the last verse of "Ol' Man River".
- Note: The 1951 MGM film changed many aspects of the story. It brought Ravenal and Magnolia back together only a few years after they separated, rather than 23. Gaylord has a chance meeting with Julie, and learns that he has a daughter. Gaylord returns to find the child Kim playing. Magnolia sees them and takes him back, and the family returns to the show boat. Joe and the chorus start singing "Ol' Man River" as the scenes unfold, then the paddlewheel starts turning in tempo with the music, as the ship heads down river. Julie is shown, viewing from a distance. She had followed him and watched the scene from the shadows.
Musical numbers
The musical numbers in the original production were as follows:Act 1
- Cotton Blossom – Stevedores and Townspeople
- Cap'n Andy's Ballyhoo - Cap'n Andy and Chorus
- Where's the Mate for Me? – Gaylord Ravenal
- Make Believe – Gaylord and Magnolia
- Ol' Man RiverOl' Man River"Ol' Man River" is a song in the 1927 musical Show Boat that expresses the African American hardship and struggles of the time with the endless, uncaring flow of the Mississippi River; it is sung from the point-of-view of a dock worker on a showboat, and is the most famous song from the show...
– Joe and Stevedores - Can't Help Lovin' Dat ManCan't Help Lovin' Dat Man"Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" with music by Jerome Kern, and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, is one of the most famous songs from their classic 1927 musical play Show Boat, adapted from Edna Ferber's novel.-Context:...
– Julie, Queenie, Joe, Magnolia and Ensemble - Life Upon the Wicked Stage – Ellie and Townswomen
- Till Good Luck Comes My Way – Gaylord, Pete, Frank and Townsmen
- Ol' Man River (reprise) - Joe
- I Might Fall Back on You – Ellie, Frank and Girls
- C'mon Folks (Queenie's Ballyhoo) – Queenie, Stevedores and Gals
- Olio Dance - (instrumental)
- You Are Love – Gaylord and Magnolia
- Act I Finale (Wedding Scene) - Magnolia, Ravenal, Cap'n Andy, and Chorus
Act 2
- At the Fair – Sightseers, Barkers, and Dandies
- Dandies on Parade – City Folk
- Why Do I Love You? – Magnolia, Ravenal, Cap'n Andy, Parthy Ann Hawks and Company
- In Dahomey – Jubilee Singers and Dahomey Dancers
- BillBill (Show Boat)"Bill" is a song heard in Act II of Kern and Hammerstein's classic 1927 musical Show Boat. The song was written for Kern and P.G. Wodehouse's 1917 musical Oh, Lady! Lady!! for Vivienne Segal to perform, but withdrawn because it was considered too melancholy for that show...
(Lyrics by P. G. WodehouseP. G. WodehouseSir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...
and Revised by Hammerstein) – Julie - Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man (Reprise) – Magnolia
- Nuns' Processional - Nuns
- Make Believe (reprise) - Ravenal
- Goodbye, My Lady Love (music and lyrics by Joseph E. HowardJoseph E. HowardJoseph E. Howard was a Broadway composer, lyricist, and librettist. His Broadway credits include The District Leader, The Land of Nod and The Song Birds, The Time, the Place and the Girl, The Flower of the Ranch, The Girl Question, Stubborn Cinderella, The Goddess of Liberty, Maurice Chevalier in...
) – Frank and Ellie - After the BallAfter the Ball (song)After the Ball is a popular song written in 1891 by Charles K. Harris. The song is a classic waltz in 3/4 time. In the song, an older man tells his niece why he has never married. He saw his sweetheart kissing another man at a ball, and he refused to listen to her explanation...
(from A Trip to ChinatownA Trip to ChinatownA Trip to Chinatown is a musical comedy in three acts by Charles H. Hoyt with music by Percy Gaunt and lyrics by Hoyt, that became a silent film featuring Anna May Wong half a century later. In addition to the Gaunt and Hoyt score, many songs were interpolated into the score at one time or another...
; music and lyrics by Charles K. HarrisCharles K. HarrisCharles Kassel Harris was a well regarded American songwriter of popular music. During his long career, he advanced the relatively new genre, publishing more than 300 songs, often deemed by admirers as the "king of the tear jerkers"...
) – Magnolia and Ensemble - Ol' Man River (Reprise) – Joe
- Hey, Feller – Jubilee Singers and Queenie
- You Are Love (Reprise) – Gaylord
- Why Do I Love You? (Reprise) – Kim and Flappers
- Finale Ultimo (Ol' Man River) - Joe and Chorus
History of revisions
The original production ran four-and-a-half hours during tryouts, but was trimmed to just over three by the time it got to Broadway. During previews, two songs, "Mis'ry's Comin' RoundMis'ry's Comin' Round
Mis'ry's Comin' Round is a once-neglected song from the classic Kern and Hammerstein classic 1927 musical Show Boat. It was cut from the production during the Washington D.C. tryout on the orders of producer Florenz Ziegfeld, supposedly because it was one of the factors that made the show too long...
" and "Let's Start the New Year", were cut from the show. "Mis'ry's Comin' Round" was nevertheless published in the complete vocal score, and fragments of it are still heard in the scoring, notably in the original 1927 overture and in the miscegenation scene. The 1988 album reinstated the entire song, and it was also included in the 1994 Hal Prince revival. "Let's Start the New Year" was performed in the 1989 Paper Mill Playhouse production.
The show is generally cut in modern productions, although productions still run to nearly three hours. Two songs, "Till Good Luck Comes My Way" (sung by Ravenal) and "Hey Feller!" (sung by Queenie) were written mainly to cover scenery changes and were discarded beginning with the 1946 revival, although "Till Good Luck" was included in the 1993 Harold Prince revival of the show. The comedy song "I Might Fall Back On You" was also cut beginning in 1946, although it was restored in the 1951 film version and several stage productions since the 1980s. On record, "Hey Feller!" appears only on the 1988 EMI album. Kern and Hammerstein wrote two new songs for revivals and three more for the 1936 film version.
The score also includes four songs not originally written for Show Boat: "Bill
Bill (Show Boat)
"Bill" is a song heard in Act II of Kern and Hammerstein's classic 1927 musical Show Boat. The song was written for Kern and P.G. Wodehouse's 1917 musical Oh, Lady! Lady!! for Vivienne Segal to perform, but withdrawn because it was considered too melancholy for that show...
" was originally written by Kern and P. G. Wodehouse
P. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...
in 1917 and was reworked by Hammerstein for Show Boat. Two other songs not by Kern and Hammerstein, "Goodbye, My Lady Love" by Joseph E. Howard
Joseph E. Howard
Joseph E. Howard was a Broadway composer, lyricist, and librettist. His Broadway credits include The District Leader, The Land of Nod and The Song Birds, The Time, the Place and the Girl, The Flower of the Ranch, The Girl Question, Stubborn Cinderella, The Goddess of Liberty, Maurice Chevalier in...
and "After the Ball
After the Ball (song)
After the Ball is a popular song written in 1891 by Charles K. Harris. The song is a classic waltz in 3/4 time. In the song, an older man tells his niece why he has never married. He saw his sweetheart kissing another man at a ball, and he refused to listen to her explanation...
" by Charles K. Harris
Charles K. Harris
Charles Kassel Harris was a well regarded American songwriter of popular music. During his long career, he advanced the relatively new genre, publishing more than 300 songs, often deemed by admirers as the "king of the tear jerkers"...
, were included by the authors for historical atmosphere and are included in revivals. The New Year's Eve scene also features an instrumental version of There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight
There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight
"A Hot Time in the Old Town" is an American ragtime song, composed in 1896 by Theodore August Metz with lyrics by Joe Hayden. Metz was the band leader of the McIntyre and Heath Minstrels....
.
Some of the following numbers have been cut from subsequent productions, as noted below: (The songs Ol' Man River, Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man, and Bill
Bill (Show Boat)
"Bill" is a song heard in Act II of Kern and Hammerstein's classic 1927 musical Show Boat. The song was written for Kern and P.G. Wodehouse's 1917 musical Oh, Lady! Lady!! for Vivienne Segal to perform, but withdrawn because it was considered too melancholy for that show...
have been included in every stage and film production of Show Boat)
- Overture – The original overture, used in all stage productions up to 1946 (and heard on the three-disc EMI/Angel CD for the first time in nearly 50 years), is largely based on the deleted song "Mis'ry's Comin' RoundMis'ry's Comin' RoundMis'ry's Comin' Round is a once-neglected song from the classic Kern and Hammerstein classic 1927 musical Show Boat. It was cut from the production during the Washington D.C. tryout on the orders of producer Florenz Ziegfeld, supposedly because it was one of the factors that made the show too long...
", as Kern wanted to save this song in some form. The song was restored in the Harold Prince revival of the show. The overture also contains fragments of "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", and a faster arrangement of "Why Do I Love You?" The overtures for the 1946 revival and the 1966 Lincoln Center revival, consist of medleys of songs from the show. All three overtures were arranged by the show's orchestrator, Robert Russell BennettRobert Russell BennettRobert Russell Bennett was an American composer and arranger, best known for his orchestration of many well-known Broadway and Hollywood musicals by other composers such as Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers. In 1957 and 2008, Bennett received Tony Awards...
, who orchestrated most of Kern's later shows. - "Cotton Blossom" – This number is performed in all the stage productions, and shorter versions were used in the 1936 and 1951 film versions. Not heard in the 1929 film version.
- "Where's the Mate for Me?" - Ravenal's first song; heard in all stage versions, partially sung in the 1936 film version, and sung complete in the 1951 film version. Not sung in the 1929 film version.
- "Make BelieveMake Believe (Jerome Kern song)"Make Believe" is a show tune from the 1927 Broadway musical Show Boat with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.In the show, it is first sung as a duet by the characters Gaylord Ravenal, a handsome riverboat gambler, and the teenage Magnolia Hawks, an aspiring performer and...
" –Performed in all stage versions, and in the 1936 and 1951 film versions, but not the 1929 one. - "Life Upon the Wicked Stage" – This comic song is usually included in stage versions, but is heard only instrumentally in the 1936 film. Not included in the 1929 film, but sung and danced in the 1951 film version.
- "Till Good Luck Comes My Way" – Kern and Hammerstein cut it from the 1946 revival, but it was reinstated in the 1971 London stage revival. It is heard only instrumentally in the 1936 film and is cut altogether in the 1929 and 1951 films.
- "I Might Fall Back on You" – This was usually cut after 1946, but it has been reinstated in revivals beginning in 1966. It was absent from the 1929 and 1936 films, but included in the 1951 film.
- "C'mon Folks (Queenie's Ballyhoo)" - Always included in the show, it was sung in the prologue to the 1929 film version, but omitted from the 1936 film and heard only instrumentally in the 1951 film.
- "Olio Dance" – This is rarely performed now, since it was composed simply to cover a change of scenery. It is an orchestral piece that partially uses the melody of "I Might Fall Back on You", and can be heard on the EMI 3-CD album (as Villain Dance). The 1936 film substituted the new Kern-Hammerstein number "Gallivantin' Around", performed as an olioOlio (musical number)An olio is a Vaudeville number, short dance or song performed as musical encore after the performance of a dramatic play. It can also be defined as a collection of various artistic or literary works or musical pieces used between acts in a burlesque or minstrel show. This was common on showboats in...
by Irene DunneIrene DunneIrene Dunne was an American film actress and singer of the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her performances in Cimarron , Theodora Goes Wild , The Awful Truth , Love Affair and I Remember Mama...
(as Magnolia) in blackface. It was cut from the 1989 PBS Paper Mill PlayhousePaper Mill PlayhousePaper Mill Playhouse is a regional theatre with approximately 1200 seats, located in Millburn, New Jersey, less than 25 miles from Manhattan. Due to its location, it can draw from the pool of actors who live in New York City. Its location, as well as its focus on producing large-scale shows, makes...
production. Some modern productions move the song "I Might Fall Back on You" to this spot. - "You Are Love" – Kern considered this popular waltz to be the score's weakest: he tried unsuccessfully to eliminate it from the 1936 film version. It has never been cut from any stage production. It was shortened, and the introductory verse was cut, in both the 1936 and the 1951 films. It was not performed in the 1929 film.
- "Act I Finale" – This was shortened in the 1936 film and cut from the 1951 film.
- "At the Chicago World's Fair" – This is sometimes eliminated and was cut from the films, however, it was played instrumentally in the 1936 film.
- "Why Do I Love You?" – Used in all stage versions, this number was sung during the exit music to the 1929 film, played as background music in the 1936 film, and was sung in the 1951 film version. In the 1994 Hal Prince revival it was sung by Parthy.
- "Goodbye, My Lady Love" – This is only used in American productions. It is included in the 1936 film, but not in the 1951 film or the 1929 one.
- "After the BallAfter the Ball (song)After the Ball is a popular song written in 1891 by Charles K. Harris. The song is a classic waltz in 3/4 time. In the song, an older man tells his niece why he has never married. He saw his sweetheart kissing another man at a ball, and he refused to listen to her explanation...
". Performed in all stage productions and in both the 1936 and 1951 films, but not the 1929 one. - "Hey, Feller" - Used in nearly all stage productions up until 1946, and sung in the prologue to the 1929 film. Not used in the 1936 film, but used as background score in the 1951 film before the singing of "Cotton Blossom".
Additional numbers have been included in films and revivals as follows:
- "Mis'ry's Comin' RoundMis'ry's Comin' RoundMis'ry's Comin' Round is a once-neglected song from the classic Kern and Hammerstein classic 1927 musical Show Boat. It was cut from the production during the Washington D.C. tryout on the orders of producer Florenz Ziegfeld, supposedly because it was one of the factors that made the show too long...
" – Though this was cut from the original production, Kern ensured that it was published in the complete vocal score. The 1988 album reinstated it, and it was also included in the 1994 Hal Prince revival. - "Let's Start the New Year" - Cut from the original production but performed in the 1989 Papermill Playhouse production.
- "I Have The Room Above Her" is a romantic duet written by Kern and Hammerstein for Ravenal and Magnolia in the 1936 film. It was included in the 1994 Broadway revival.
- "Gallivantin' Around" is a cakewalk style number written by Kern and Hammerstein for Magnolia for the 1936 film.
- "Ah Still Suits Me" is a comic duet written by Kern and Hammerstein for the 1936 film, and sung by the characters Joe and Queenie (Paul Robeson and Hattie McDanielHattie McDanielHattie McDaniel was the first African-American actress to win an Academy Award. She won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind ....
). The number was also included in the 1989 Paper Mill Playhouse production. - "Nobody Else But Me" was written by Kern and Hammerstein for the 1946 Broadway revival, to be sung in the spot where Kim usually sings a reprise of "Why Do I Love You". This was the last song written by Kern; he died shortly before the 1946 production opened. In the 1971 London stage revival, the song was sung by Julie, in a new scene written especially for that production. It is not sung in any film version of the show, but was frequently heard in stage revivals up until about the 1980s.
- "Dandies on Parade" is a dance number arranged for the 1994 Broadway production by David Krane, largely from Kern's music.
Original 1927 production
Before the New York premiere of Show Boat, Ziegfeld previewedPreview (theatre)
Previews are a set of public performances of a theatrical presentation that precede its official opening. The purpose of previews is to allow the director and crew to identify problems and opportunities for improvement that weren't found during rehearsals and to make adjustments before critics are...
the production in a pre-Broadway tour from November 15 to December 19, 1927. The locations included the National Theatre
National Theatre (Washington, D.C.)
The National Theatre is located in Washington, D.C., and is a venue for a variety of live stage productions with seating for 1,676.Despite its name, it is not a governmentally funded national theatre, but operated by a private, non-profit organization....
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, the Nixon Theatre in Pittsburgh, the Ohio Theatre in Cleveland, and the Erlanger Theatre in Philadelphia. The show opened on Broadway at the Ziegfeld Theatre
Ziegfeld Theatre
The Ziegfeld Theatre was a Broadway theater located at the intersection of Sixth Avenue and 54th Street in Manhattan, New York City. It was built in 1927 and, despite public protests, was razed in 1966....
on December 27, 1927. The critics were immediately enthusiastic, and the show was a great popular success, running a year and a half, for a total of 572 performances.
The production was staged by Oscar Hammerstein II. Choreography for the show was by Sammy Lee. The original cast included Norma Terris
Norma Terris
Norma Terris was an American musical theatre star. Her mother, a singer, named her after the heroine of Bellini's opera, Norma....
as Magnolia Hawks and her daughter Kim (as an adult), Howard Marsh
Howard Marsh
Howard Marsh was a leading Broadway tenor of the 1920s. He created the role of Baron Franz Schober in Sigmund Romberg's operetta drawn from Schubert's life and music, Blossom Time, in 1921, and that of Prince Karl Franz in the original 1924 production of Sigmund Romberg's operetta The Student...
as Gaylord Ravenal, Helen Morgan
Helen Morgan
Helen Morgan was an American singer and actress who worked in films and on the stage. A quintessential torch singer, she made a big splash in the Chicago club scene in the 1920s...
as Julie LaVerne, Jules Bledsoe
Jules Bledsoe
Jules Bledsoe was a once renowned, but now semi-forgotten baritone, and the first African American artist to gain regular employment on Broadway, subsequent to Bert Williams, William Grant Still, Ford Dabney and others....
as Joe, Charles Winninger
Charles Winninger
Charles Winninger was an American stage and film actor, most often cast in comedies or musicals, but equally at home in drama.-Biography:He began as a vaudeville actor...
as Cap'n Andy Hawks, Edna May Oliver
Edna May Oliver
Edna May Oliver was an American stage and film actress. During the 1930s, she was one of the best-known character actresses in American films, often playing tart-tongued spinsters.-Early life:...
as Parthy Ann Hawks, Sammy White
Sammy White (actor)
Sammy White was an American vaudeville song-and-dance comedian who appeared in a few films. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island. He appeared with Lew Clayton, as Clayton and White, in the Broadway show Schubert Gaieties of 1919.With his first wife, Eva Puck, White appeared in vaudeville as...
as Frank Schultz, Eva Puck
Eva Puck
Eva Puck was a vaudeville headliner who later found success performing in Broadway musical comedies.-Early Life:...
as Ellie May Chipley, and Tess Gardella
Tess Gardella
Therese "Tess" Gardella was an Italian American performer whose stage persona was "Aunt Jemima".A native of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Gardella performed on both stage and screen, usually in blackface. In 1927, she originated the role of Queenie in the classic stage musical Show Boat...
as Queenie. The orchestrator was Robert Russell Bennett
Robert Russell Bennett
Robert Russell Bennett was an American composer and arranger, best known for his orchestration of many well-known Broadway and Hollywood musicals by other composers such as Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers. In 1957 and 2008, Bennett received Tony Awards...
, and the conductor was Victor Baravalle
Victor Baravalle
Victor Baravalle was an Italian born composer and conductor. He conducted the orchestra for the Broadway premiere production of Show Boat in 1927, as well as for the original stage productions of nine other Jerome Kern shows, among them The Cat and the Fiddle, Music in the Air, and Roberta...
. The scenic design
Scenic design
Scenic design is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers have traditionally come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but nowadays, generally speaking, they are trained professionals, often with M.F.A...
for the original production was by Joseph Urban
Joseph Urban
Joseph Urban Born in Vienna, Austria, died in New York City, trained as an architect, known also for his theatrical design and his early illustrations of children's books....
, who had worked with Ziegfeld for many years in his Follies
Ziegfeld Follies
The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....
and had designed the elaborate new Ziegfeld Theatre itself. Costumes were designed by John Harkrider.
In his opening night review for the New York Times, Brooks Atkinson
Brooks Atkinson
Justin Brooks Atkinson was an American theatre critic. He worked for The New York Times from 1925 to 1960...
called the book's adaptation "intelligently made", and the production one of "unimpeachable skill and taste." He termed Norma Terris "a revelation"; Charles Winninger "extraordinarily persuasive and convincing"; and Jules Bledsoe's singing "remarkably effective".
Paul Robeson
The character Joe, the stevedoreStevedore
Stevedore, dockworker, docker, dock labourer, wharfie and longshoreman can have various waterfront-related meanings concerning loading and unloading ships, according to place and country....
who sings "Ol' Man River", was expanded from the novel and written specifically by Kern for Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
, already a noted actor and singer. Although he is the actor most identified with the role and the song, he was unavailable for the original production due to its opening delay. Jules Bledsoe
Jules Bledsoe
Jules Bledsoe was a once renowned, but now semi-forgotten baritone, and the first African American artist to gain regular employment on Broadway, subsequent to Bert Williams, William Grant Still, Ford Dabney and others....
premiered the part. Robeson played Joe in four notable productions of Show Boat: the 1928 premier London production; the 1932 Broadway revival; the 1936 film version; and a 1940 stage revival in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
Reviewing the 1932 Broadway revival, the critic Brooks Atkinson
Brooks Atkinson
Justin Brooks Atkinson was an American theatre critic. He worked for The New York Times from 1925 to 1960...
described Robeson's performance: "Mr. Robeson has a touch of genius. It is not merely his voice, which is one of the richest organs on the stage. It is his understanding that gives 'Old Man River' an epic lift. When he sings...you realize that Jerome Kern's spiritual has reached its final expression."
American revivals and 1936 film
After closing at the Ziegfeld Theatre in 1929, the original production toured extensively. The national company is notable for including Irene DunneIrene Dunne
Irene Dunne was an American film actress and singer of the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her performances in Cimarron , Theodora Goes Wild , The Awful Truth , Love Affair and I Remember Mama...
as Magnolia. Hattie McDaniel
Hattie McDaniel
Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American actress to win an Academy Award. She won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind ....
played Queenie in a 1933 West Coast production, joined by tenor Allan Jones as Ravenal.
Dunne was soon offered a contract by RKO and appeared in the 1936 Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
film adaptation, as did Jones as Ravenal. It featured Charles Winninger (Cap'n Andy), Helen Morgan (Julie), Sammy White (Frank), and Francis X. Mahoney (Rubberface) repeating their original Broadway stage roles, with Hattie McDaniel joining them as Queenie.
Show Boat was revived
Revival (play)
A revival is a restaging of a stage production after its original run has closed. New material may be added. A filmed version is said to be an adaptation and requires writing of a screenplay....
by Ziegfeld on Broadway in 1932 at the Casino Theatre
Earl Carroll Theatre
Earl Carroll Theatre was the name of two important theaters owned by Broadway impresario and showman Earl Carroll. One was located on Broadway in New York City and the other on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood, California.-Broadway:...
with most of the original cast, but with Paul Robeson as Joe and Dennis King
Dennis King (actor)
Dennis King was an English actor and singer.Born in Coventry as Dennis Pratt, King had a stage career in both drama and musicals. He emigrated to the USA in 1921 and went on to a successful career on the Broadway stage. He appeared in two musical films and played non-singing roles in two other...
as Ravenal. Further Broadway revivals were produced in 1946 (a return to the Ziegfeld Theatre); in 1948 and 1954 at New York City Center
New York City Center
New York City Center is a 2,750-seat Moorish Revival theater located at 131 West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues in Manhattan, New York City. It is one block south of Carnegie Hall...
; and in 1983 at the Uris Theatre
George Gershwin Theatre
The Gershwin Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 222 West 51st Street in midtown-Manhattan in the Paramount Plaza building. The theatre is named after composer George Gershwin and lyricist Ira Gershwin...
(presented by Douglas Urbanski
Douglas Urbanski
Douglas Urbanski is an American theater impresario, raconteur and film producer.Urbanski is a business partner with actor Gary Oldman and he also runs a talent management firm, DMG...
). Other American productions include one in 1966 at the New York State Theater by the Music Theater of Lincoln Center company, and one in 1983 at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., starring Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
as Cap'n Andy.
In 1989 the Paper Mill Playhouse
Paper Mill Playhouse
Paper Mill Playhouse is a regional theatre with approximately 1200 seats, located in Millburn, New Jersey, less than 25 miles from Manhattan. Due to its location, it can draw from the pool of actors who live in New York City. Its location, as well as its focus on producing large-scale shows, makes...
of Millburn, New Jersey
Millburn, New Jersey
Millburn is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 20,149.Millburn Township was created as a township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 20, 1857, from portions of Springfield Township.Millburn also...
mounted an important revival that tried to recapture Show Boats creators' original intentions. Described in the New York Times as coming "close to being a full visual realization of the piece as it was meant to be seen", the production restored numbers discarded from the show in the previous decades. It was directed by Robert Johanson and starred Eddie Bracken
Eddie Bracken
Edward Vincent "Eddie" Bracken was an American actor.-Life and career:Bracken was born in Astoria, New York, the son of Catherine and Joseph L. Bracken. Bracken performed in vaudeville at the age of nine and gained fame with the Broadway musical Too Many Girls in a role he reprised for the 1940...
as Cap'n Andy. The Paper Mill production was preserved on videotape and broadcast on PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
.
Livent Inc. presented the most recent major production of Show Boat on Broadway in 1994. Produced and directed by Harold Prince, it premiered in Toronto, Ontario in 1993 prior to opening in New York on October 2, 1994 at the George Gershwin Theatre
George Gershwin Theatre
The Gershwin Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 222 West 51st Street in midtown-Manhattan in the Paramount Plaza building. The theatre is named after composer George Gershwin and lyricist Ira Gershwin...
. It ran for 947 performances, Broadway's longest-running Show Boat to date. This production went on tour, playing at the Kennedy Center; and it was also staged in London and Melbourne, Australia. Prince's production revived interest in the show by tightening the book, dropping and adding songs cut in various productions, and highlighting its racial elements. Perhaps the most notable change in the score was Prince's transforming "Why Do I Love You?" from a duet between Magnolia and Ravenal to a lullaby sung by Parthy Ann to Magnolia's baby girl. The change was partly to accommodate the song's being performed by stage actress Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch is an American actress and vocalist. She has appeared in numerous stage plays and musicals, feature films, and many television programs...
. The love duet for Magnolia and Ravenal "I Have the Room Above Her", originally written by Kern and Hammerstein for the 1936 film, was added to the production. Two new mime and dance "Montages" in Act 2 depicted the passage of time through changing styles of dance and music.
London productions
Show Boat has been seen on multiple occasions in London's West EndWest End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
. The original London production opened May 3, 1928 at the Drury Lane Theatre
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
and featured among the cast, Edith Day
Edith Day
Edith Day was an American actress best known for her roles in musicals.-Life and career:Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Day made her Broadway debut in Pom-pom in 1916...
as Magnolia, Paul Robeson as Joe, and Alberta Hunter
Alberta Hunter
Alberta Hunter was an American blues singer, songwriter, and nurse. Her career had started back in the early 1920s, and from there on, she became a successful jazz and blues recording artist, being critically acclaimed to the ranks of Ethel Waters and Bessie Smith...
as Queenie. Mabel Mercer
Mabel Mercer
Mabel Mercer was an English-born cabaret singer who performed in the United States, Britain, and Europe with the greats in jazz and cabaret. She was a featured performer at Chez Bricktop in Paris, owned by the hostess Bricktop, and performed in such clubs as Le Ruban Bleu, Tony's, the RSVP, the...
, later famed as a cabaret singer, was in the chorus. Other West End presentations include a July 1971 production at the Adelphi Theatre
Adelphi Theatre
The Adelphi Theatre is a 1500-seat West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals...
, which ran for 909 performances, and a 1998 production at the Prince Edward Theatre
Prince Edward Theatre
The Prince Edward Theatre is a West End theatre situated on Old Compton Street, just north of Leicester Square, in the City of Westminster.The theatre was designed in 1930 by Edward A. Stone, with an interior designed by Marc-Henri Levy and Gaston Laverdet...
. Other notable revivals in England have been the joint Opera North
Opera North
Opera North is an English opera company based in Leeds. The company's home theatre is the Leeds Grand Theatre, but it also presents regular seasons in several other cities, at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, the Lowry Centre, Salford Quays and the Theatre Royal, Newcastle...
/Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
production of 1989 and the June 2006 production directed by Francesca Zambello
Francesca Zambello
Francesca Zambello is a leading American opera and theatre director. Zambello lived in Europe when she was a child, learning to speak French, Italian, German and Russian. Zambello is of Italian descent, the daughter of Jean , an actress and Charles C. Zambello, a former actor who became head of...
, conducted by David Charles Abell
David Charles Abell
David Charles Abell is a British American orchestral conductor active in symphonic music, opera and musical theatre. Known for his television appearances worldwide as conductor of the Les Misérables 10th and 25th Anniversary concerts, he is recognised as an authoritative interpreter of the...
and presented by Raymond Gubbay
Raymond Gubbay
Raymond Gubbay is a classical music promoter and impresario based in London. The programme to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his starting out as a promoter says that, after arranging small scale concerts around the UK, he began gradually to promote in London...
at London's Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
– the first fully staged musical production in the history of that venue.
Film and television
Show Boat has been adapted for film several times, and for television once.- 1929 Show BoatShow Boat (1929 film)Show Boat is a film based on the novel by Edna Ferber. This version was released by Universal in two editions, one a silent film for movie theatres still not equipped for sound, and one a part-talkie with a sound prologue...
. UniversalUniversal Pictures-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
. Released in silent and partial sound versions. Not a film version of the musical; its plot is based on the original Edna Ferber novel. After the silent film was completed, a prologue with some music from the show was filmed and added to a part-talkie version of the same film, which was released with two sound sequences. - 1936 Show BoatShow Boat (1936 film)Show Boat is a 1936 film based on the musical play by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II , which the team adapted from the novel by Edna Ferber....
. UniversalUniversal Pictures-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
. Directed by James WhaleJames WhaleJames Whale was an English film director, theatre director and actor. He is best remembered for his work in the horror film genre, having directed such classics as Frankenstein , The Old Dark House , The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein...
. A mostly faithful film version of the show, considered by many critics to be one of the great film musicals. - 1946 Till the Clouds Roll ByTill the Clouds Roll ByTill The Clouds Roll By is a 1946 American musical film made by MGM. The film is a fictionalized biography of composer Jerome Kern, who was originally involved with the production of the film, but died before it was completed...
. MGM. In this fictionalized film biography of composer Jerome Kern (played by Robert Walker), Show Boats 1927 opening night is depicted in a lavishly staged fifteen-minute medley of six of the show's songs. The number features Kathryn GraysonKathryn GraysonKathryn Grayson was an American actress and operatic soprano singer.From the age of twelve, Grayson trained as an opera singer. She was under contract to MGM by the early 1940s, soon establishing a career principally through her work in musicals...
, Tony MartinTony Martin (entertainer)Tony Martin is an American actor and singer.-Career:Tony Martin was born on Christmas Day, 1913 as Alvin Morris in San Francisco, California to Jewish immigrant parents. He received a saxophone as a gift from his grandmother at the age of ten. In his grammar school glee club, he became an...
, Lena HorneLena HorneLena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...
, Virginia O'BrienVirginia O'BrienVirginia Lee O'Brien was a popular American actress, singer, and radio personality known for her comedic roles in MGM musicals of the 1940s.-Life and career:...
, Caleb Peterson, and William Halligan as, respectively, Magnolia, Ravenal, Julie, Ellie, Joe, and Cap'n Andy. - 1951 Show BoatShow Boat (1951 film)Show Boat is a 1951 Technicolor film based on the musical by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II and the novel by Edna Ferber....
. MGM. Somewhat revised Technicolor film version. Follows the basic storyline and contains many songs from the show, but makes many changes in the details of plot and character. The most financially successful and frequently revived of the three film versions, but looked down on by some critics. - 1989 A live performance by the Paper Mill PlayhousePaper Mill PlayhousePaper Mill Playhouse is a regional theatre with approximately 1200 seats, located in Millburn, New Jersey, less than 25 miles from Manhattan. Due to its location, it can draw from the pool of actors who live in New York City. Its location, as well as its focus on producing large-scale shows, makes...
was videotaped for television and shown on Great PerformancesGreat PerformancesGreat Performances, a television series devoted to the performing arts, has been telecast on Public Broadcasting Service public television since 1972...
on PBSPublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
. It contains more of the songs (and fewer cuts) than any of the film versions. It includes the choral number, "Let's Start the New Year", which was dropped from the show before its Broadway opening, and "Ah Still Suits Me", a song written by Kern and Hammerstein for the 1936 film version of the show.
Radio
Show Boat was adapted for live radioLive radio
Live radio is radio broadcast without delay. Before the days of television, audiences listened to live dramas, comedies, quiz shows, and concerts on the radio much the same way that they now do on TV. Most talk radio is live radio where people can speak about their opinions/lives....
at least seven times. Due to network censorship rules many of the radio productions eliminated the miscegenation aspect of the plot. A notable exception was the 1940 Cavalcade of America broadcast.
- Campbell Playhouse (CBS 1939). Directed and introduced by Orson WellesOrson WellesGeorge Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
. This was a non-musical version of the story that was based more closely on Edna Ferber's novel than on the musical. From the original stage cast Helen MorganHelen MorganHelen Morgan was an American singer and actress who worked in films and on the stage. A quintessential torch singer, she made a big splash in the Chicago club scene in the 1920s...
repeated her portrayal of Julie, here singing one song not from the musical. Orson Welles portrayed Cap'n Andy, Margaret SullavanMargaret SullavanMargaret Brooke Sullavan was an American stage and film actress. Sullavan started her career on the stage in 1929. In 1933 she caught the attention of movie director John M. Stahl and had her debut on the screen that same year in Only Yesterday...
was Magnolia, and author Edna Ferber made her acting debut as Parthy. This version made Julie into an illegal alien who must be deported. - Cavalcade of AmericaCavalcade of AmericaCavalcade of America is an anthology drama series that was sponsored by the DuPont Company, although it occasionally presented a musical, such as an adaptation of Show Boat, and condensed biographies of popular composers. It was initially broadcast on radio from 1935 to 1953, and later on...
(NBC, May 28, 1940). A half hour dramatization with Jeanette Nolan, John McIntire, Agnes MooreheadAgnes MooreheadAgnes Robertson Moorehead was an American actress. Although she began with the Mercury Theatre, appeared in more than seventy films beginning with Citizen Kane and on dozens of television shows during a career that spanned more than thirty years, Moorehead is most widely known to modern audiences...
, and the Ken Christy Chorus. Although brief, it was remarkably faithful to the original show. - Lux Radio TheaterLux Radio TheaterLux Radio Theater, a long-run classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network ; CBS and NBC . Initially, the series adapted Broadway plays during its first two seasons before it began adapting films. These hour-long radio programs were performed live before studio audiences...
(CBS, June 1940). Introduced and produced by Cecil B. DeMilleCecil B. DeMilleCecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
, it featured Irene DunneIrene DunneIrene Dunne was an American film actress and singer of the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her performances in Cimarron , Theodora Goes Wild , The Awful Truth , Love Affair and I Remember Mama...
, Allan Jones, and Charles WinningerCharles WinningerCharles Winninger was an American stage and film actor, most often cast in comedies or musicals, but equally at home in drama.-Biography:He began as a vaudeville actor...
, all of whom were in the 1936 film version. In this condensed version some songs from the show were sung, but Julie was played by a non-singing Gloria Holden. This version made the biracial Julie a single woman. - Radio Hall of Fame (1944). This production featured Kathryn Grayson, playing Magnolia for the first time. Also in the cast were Allan Jones as Ravenal, Helen ForrestHelen ForrestHelen Forrest was one of the most popular female jazz vocalists during America's Big Band era. She was born Helen Fogel to a Jewish family in Atlantic City, New Jersey on April 12, 1917...
as Julie, Charles Winninger as Cap'n Andy, Ernest Whitman as Joe, and Elvia AllmanElvia AllmanElvia Allman was a character actress and voice over performer in Hollywood films and television programs for over 50 years. She is best remembered for her semi-regular roles on The Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction and for being the voice of Walt Disney's Clarabelle Cow...
as Parthy. - The Railroad HourThe Railroad HourThe Railroad Hour was a radio series of musical dramas and comedies broadcast from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s.Sponsored by the Association of American Railroads, the series condensed musicals and operettas to shorter lengths, concentrating on those written before 1943. Singer-actor Gordon...
(ABC 1950). Condensed to a half-hour, this version featured singers Dorothy KirstenDorothy KirstenDorothy Kirsten was an American operatic soprano.-Biography:...
, Gordon MacRaeGordon MacRaeGordon MacRae was an American actor and singer, best known for his appearances in the film versions of two Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, Oklahoma! and Carousel and films with Doris Day like Starlift.-Early life:Born Albert Gordon MacRae in East Orange, New Jersey, MacRae graduated from...
, and Lucille Norman. "Ol' Man River" was sung by MacRae instead of by an African-American singer. Explanation of Julie and Steve's departure went completely unmentioned in this version. - Lux Radio Theatre (1952). A radio version of the 1951 MGM film featuring Kathryn GraysonKathryn GraysonKathryn Grayson was an American actress and operatic soprano singer.From the age of twelve, Grayson trained as an opera singer. She was under contract to MGM by the early 1940s, soon establishing a career principally through her work in musicals...
, Ava GardnerAva GardnerAva Lavinia Gardner was an American actress.She was signed to a contract by MGM Studios in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew attention with her performance in The Killers . She became one of Hollywood's leading actresses, considered one of the most beautiful women of her day...
, Howard KeelHoward KeelHarold Clifford Keel , known professionally as Howard Keel, was an American actor and singer. He starred in many film musicals of the 1950s...
, and William WarfieldWilliam WarfieldWilliam Caesar Warfield , was an American concert bass-baritone singer and actor.-Early life and career:Warfield was born in West Helena, Arkansas and grew up in Rochester, New York, where his father was called to serve as pastor of Mt. Vernon Church. He gave his recital debut in New York's Town...
from the film's cast. Jay C. FlippenJay C. FlippenJay C. Flippen is an American character actor who often played police officers or weary criminals in many films of the 1940s/'50s....
portrayed Cap'n Andy. - In 2011, a two part version was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the Classic Serial spot. Solely based on the novel by Edna FerberEdna FerberEdna Ferber was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels were especially popular and included the Pulitzer Prize-winning So Big , Show Boat , and Giant .-Early years:Ferber was born August 15, 1885, in Kalamazoo, Michigan,...
, it was dramatised by Moya O'Shea, produced/directed by Tracey Neale, and starred Lysette AnthonyLysette AnthonyLysette Anthony is an English film, television, and theatre actress.-Early life:Anthony was born Lysette Chodzko in Fulham, London, the only daughter of actors Michael Anthony, and Bernadette Milnes....
as Kim, Samantha SpiroSamantha SpiroSamantha Spiro is an Olivier Award-winning English actress. She is known for portraying Barbara Windsor in the stage play Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick and the television film Cor, Blimey!, and DI Vivien Friend in M.I.T.: Murder Investigation Team.-Background:Born in Mill Hill, Spiro grew up...
as Magnolia, Laurel Lefkow as Parthy, Morgan Deare as Cap'n Andy, Ryan McCluskey as Gaylord Ravenal, and Nonso AnozieNonso AnozieNonso Anozie is a British actor who has appeared in several stage plays and four films to date.In the summer of 2002 he became the youngest person in history to play William Shakespeare's "King Lear" and won the Ian Charleson Award in 2005 for his performance as Othello.Anozie was hired in 2006 to...
as Joe, with original music by Neil BrandNeil BrandNeil Brand , is a British dramatist, composer and author. In addition to being regular silent film accompanist at London's National Film Theatre, Brand has composed new scores for two recently restored films from the 1920s, namely The Wrecker and Anthony Asquith's Underground. Brand has also acted...
.
Concert Hall
- In 1941, the Cleveland OrchestraCleveland OrchestraThe Cleveland Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. It is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1918, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Severance Hall...
, under the direction of Artur RodzinskiArtur RodzinskiArtur Rodziński was a Polish conductor of opera and symphonic music. He is especially noted for his tenures as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic in the 1930s and 1940s.-Biography:...
, premiered the orchestral work Show Boat: A Scenario for Orchestra , a twenty-two minute orchestral work weaving together many themes from the show. Rodzinski and the orchestra recorded it that same year, and there have been several modern recordings of the work since, notably one by John MauceriJohn MauceriJohn Francis Mauceri is an American conductor, producer and arranger for theatre, opera and television. For fifteen years, he served on the faculty of Yale University. He was a protege of Leonard Bernstein...
and the Hollywood Bowl OrchestraHollywood Bowl OrchestraThe Hollywood Bowl Orchestra is a symphony orchestra which is managed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and plays the vast majority of its performances at the Hollywood Bowl....
.
Selected Recordings
- 1928 - original LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
cast album. This was released in England on 78rpm records years before being sold in the United States. Because the U.S. had not yet begun making original cast albums of Broadway shows, the 1927 Broadway show was not recorded. The cast on the 1928 London album included Edith DayEdith DayEdith Day was an American actress best known for her roles in musicals.-Life and career:Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Day made her Broadway debut in Pom-pom in 1916...
, Howett Worster, Marie Burke and Alberta HunterAlberta HunterAlberta Hunter was an American blues singer, songwriter, and nurse. Her career had started back in the early 1920s, and from there on, she became a successful jazz and blues recording artist, being critically acclaimed to the ranks of Ethel Waters and Bessie Smith...
. Due to contractual restrictions, cast member Paul RobesonPaul RobesonPaul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
was replaced on the album as Joe by his understudy, baritone Norris Smith. Robeson did record "Ol' Man River" at the time, however, and that recording was later released separately. His rendition appears on the EMIEMIThe EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
CD "Paul Robeson Sings 'Ol' Man River' and Other Favorites". - 1932 - studio cast recordingStudio recordingThe term studio recording means any recording made in a studio, as opposed to a live recording, which is usually made in a concert venue or a theatre, with an audience attending the performance.-Studio cast recordings:...
on 78rpm by Brunswick RecordsBrunswick RecordsBrunswick Records is a United States based record label. The label is currently distributed by E1 Entertainment.-From 1916:Records under the "Brunswick" label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company...
. Later re-released by Columbia RecordsColumbia RecordsColumbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
on 78rpm, 33-1/3rpm and briefly on CD. This recording featured Helen Morgan, Paul Robeson, James MeltonJames MeltonJames Melton , a popular singer in the 1920s and early 1930s, later began a career as an operatic singer when tenor voices went out of style in popular music around 1932-35...
, Frank Munn, and Countess Olga Albani, and was issued in conjunction with the 1932 revival of the show, although it was not strictly an "original cast" album of that revival. The orchestra was conducted by Victor YoungVictor YoungVictor Young was an American composer, arranger, violinist and conductor. He was born in Chicago.-Biography:...
. - 1946 - Broadway revival cast recording. Issued on 78rpm, LP and CD. The 78-RPM and LP versions were issued by Columbia, the CD by SonySony, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
. This was the first American recording of Show Boat which used the cast, conductor, and orchestrations of a major Broadway revival of the show. (Robert Russell Bennett's orchestrations for this revival thoroughly modified his original 1927 orchestrations.) Jan ClaytonJan ClaytonJan Clayton was a film, musical theatre, and television actress.-Career:...
, Carol BruceCarol BruceCarol Bruce was an American band singer, Broadway star, and film and television actress.Bruce was born Shirley Levy in Great Neck, New York, the daughter of Beatrice and Harry Levy. She began her career as a singer in the late 1930s with Larry Clinton and his band...
, Charles Fredericks, Kenneth SpencerKenneth Lee SpencerKenneth Lee Spencer was an American opera singer and actor. A talented bass-baritone, Spencer starred in a few Broadway musicals and musical films in the United States during the 1940s. Frustrated with the racial prejudice he experienced in the United States, Spencer moved to Germany in 1950 where...
and Colette Lyons were featured. Includes the new song, "Nobody Else But Me". - 1951 - MGM RecordsMGM RecordsMGM Records was a record label started by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946, for the purpose of releasing soundtrack albums of their musical films. Later it became a pop label, lasting into the 1970s...
soundtrack albumSoundtrack albumA soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television program. In some cases, not all the tracks from the movie are included in the album; however there are rare cases of songs in the trailers that do not appear in...
, with cast members of the 1951 film versionShow Boat (1951 film)Show Boat is a 1951 Technicolor film based on the musical by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II and the novel by Edna Ferber....
. The first film soundtrack of Show Boat to be issued on records. Appeared both on 45rpm and 33-1/3rpm, later on CD in a much expanded edition. Actress Ava GardnerAva GardnerAva Lavinia Gardner was an American actress.She was signed to a contract by MGM Studios in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew attention with her performance in The Killers . She became one of Hollywood's leading actresses, considered one of the most beautiful women of her day...
, whose voice was dubbed by Annette Warren in the film, is heard singing on this album. The expanded version on CD contains both Warren's and Gardner's vocal tracks. This marked the recording debut of William Warfield, who played Joe and sang Ol' Man River in the film. - 1956 - RCA Victor studio cast album conducted by Lehman EngelLehman EngelLehman Engel was an American composer and conductor of Broadway musicals, television and film.-Work in theatre, television and films:...
. This album featured more of the score on one LP than had been previously recorded. It featured a white singer, famed American baritoneBaritoneBaritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
Robert MerrillRobert MerrillRobert Merrill was an American operatic baritone.-Early life:Merrill was born Moishe Miller, later known as Morris Miller, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York, to tailor Abraham Miller, originally Milstein, and his wife Lillian, née Balaban, immigrants from Warsaw, Poland.His mother...
, as both Joe and Gaylord Ravenal. Other singers included Patrice MunselPatrice MunselPatrice Munsel is an American coloratura soprano, the youngest singer who ever starred at the Metropolitan Opera, nicknamed "Princess Pat"....
as Magnolia and Rise StevensRisë StevensRisë Stevens is a retired American operatic mezzo-soprano.-Professional life:Stevens studied at New York's Juilliard School for three years. She went to Vienna, where she was trained by Marie Gutheil-Schoder and Herbert Graf. She made her début as Mignon in Prague in 1936 and stayed there until...
as Julie. Issued on CD in 2009, but omitting Frank and Ellie's numbers, which had been sung on the LP version by Janet PavekJanet PavekJanet Pavek was an American operatic soprano and musical theatre actress.-Biography:Pavek was born and raised in Bronxville, New York and began studying singing at the age of eleven. She won the Miss Eastchester pagaent in 1953 at the age of sixteen...
and Kevin Scott. - 1958 - RCA Victor studio cast album. The first Show Boat in stereo, this recording starred Howard Keel (singing "Ol' Man River" as well as Gaylord Ravenal's songs), Anne JeffreysAnne JeffreysAnne Jeffreys is an American actress and singer.- Career :Born Anne Carmichael in Goldsboro, North Carolina, Jeffreys entered the entertainment field at a young age; her initial training was in voice , but she decided as a teenager to sign with the John Robert Powers agency as a junior model.Her...
, and Gogi GrantGogi GrantGogi Grant is an American popular singer.-Life and career:Grant was born Myrtle Audrey Arinsberg in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the age of 12, she moved to Los Angeles, California, where she attended Venice High School. In California, she won a teenage singing contest and appeared on television...
. It was issued on CD in 2010. - 1959 - EMI British studio cast albumShow Boat (1959 Studio cast album)Show Boat is a studio recording of the 1927 musical Show Boat by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II. The album was recorded in the summer of 1959 at the No.1 studio, Abbey Road, London, and issued by the 'His Master's Voice' label, a subsidiary of EMI, which was run at this time by Norman Newell...
. It featured Marlys Walters as Magnolia, Don McKay as Ravenal, Shirley BasseyShirley BasseyDame Shirley Bassey, DBE , is a Welsh singer. She found fame in the late 1950s and was "one of the most popular female vocalists in Britain during the last half of the 20th century"...
, who was later to become famous for singing the title song in GoldfingerGoldfinger (film)Goldfinger is the third spy film in the James Bond series and the third to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Released in 1964, it is based on the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. The film also stars Honor Blackman as Bond girl Pussy Galore and Gert Fröbe as the title...
, as Julie, Dora BryanDora BryanDora May Bryan OBE is an English actress of stage, film and television.-Early life:Bryan was born as Dora May Broadbent in Southport, Lancashire, England. Her father was a salesman and she attended Hathershaw County Primary School in Oldham, Lancashire...
as Ellie, and Inia Te WiataInia Te WiataInia Watene Tauhia Te Wiata was a New Zealand Māori bass-baritone opera singer, film actor and carver.-Early life:Inia Te Wiata was born in Otaki, New Zealand, into the Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga Iwi...
singing "Ol' Man River". - 1962 - Columbia studio cast album. Starring Barbara CookBarbara CookBarbara Cook is an American singer and actress who first came to prominence in the 1950s after starring in the original Broadway musicals Candide and The Music Man among others, winning a Tony Award for the latter...
, John RaittJohn RaittJohn Emmett Raitt was an American actor and singer best known for his performances in musical theater.-Early years:...
, Anita Darian and William Warfield, this was the first "Show Boat" recording issued on CD. Although Robert Russell Bennett was uncredited, this used several of his orchestrations for the 1946 revival of the show, together with some modifications. - 1966 - Lincoln Center cast album. Issued by RCA Victor, it featured Cook, Constance TowersConstance Towers-Early life:Towers was born in Whitefish, Montana, the daughter of Ardath L. and Harry J. Towers. According to her official Web site, a contract from Paramount Pictures was offered to her at age 11 but was declined...
, Stephen DouglassStephen DouglassStephen Douglass is an American actor-singer.Born Stephen Fitch in Mount Vernon, Ohio, Douglass has had a distinguished theatrical career and has appeared occasionally on television. He was the last performer to play Billy Bigelow in the original Broadway production of Carousel and he created the...
, and William Warfield. Robert Russell Bennett's orchestrations were modified even further. Also available on CD . - 1971 - London revival cast album. Jazz singer Cleo LaineCleo LaineDame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth, DBE is a jazz singer and an actress, noted for her scat singing and vocal range...
, soprano Lorna Dallas, tenor Andre Jobin, and bass-baritone Thomas CareyThomas Carey (baritone)Thomas Carey was an American operatic baritone. Born in Bennettsville, South Carolina, he served in the United States military during the Korean War. After leaving the service he studied singing at the Henry Street Settlement and at City College of New York...
were the leads. It used completely new orchestrations bearing almost no resemblance to Robert Russell Bennett's. This was the first 2-LP album of Show Boat. It included more of the score than had been previously put on records. Issued later on CD. - 1988 - EMI studio cast album. This is a three-CD set which, for the first time, contained the entire score of the show, with the authentic 1927 orchestrations and vocal arrangements. The cast includes Frederica von StadeFrederica von StadeFrederica von Stade is an American mezzo-soprano. Born in Somerville, New Jersey, she acquired the nickname "Flicka" in her childhood. Von Stade attended the Mannes College of Music in New York City. She made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera in 1970 and in 1971 appeared as Cherubino in The...
, Jerry HadleyJerry HadleyJerry Hadley was an American operatic tenor. He received three Grammy awards for his vocal performances in the recordings of Jenůfa , Susannah , and Candide...
, Teresa StratasTeresa StratasTeresa Stratas, OC , is a retired Canadian operatic soprano. She is especially well-known for her award-winning recording of Alban Berg's Lulu.-Early life and career:...
, Karla BurnsKarla BurnsKarla Burns is an American operatic mezzo-soprano and actress who has performed nationally and internationally in opera houses, theatres, and on television...
, and Bruce HubbardBruce HubbardBruce Hubbard was an African-American operatic baritone. He attended Indiana University. He was a music major and helped coach actors that appeared in musicals.-Biography:...
. The album is conducted by John McGlinnJohn McGlinnJohn Alexander McGlinn III was an American conductor and musical theatre archivist. He was one of the principal proponents of authentic studio cast recordings of Broadway musicals, using original orchestrations and vocal arrangements.-Biography:John Alexander McGlinn III was born in Bryn Mawr,...
. - 1993 - Toronto revival cast recording. Starring Rebecca LukerRebecca LukerRebecca Luker is an American musical theatre actress and soprano who has appeared in several prominent Broadway productions.-Life and career:...
, Mark JacobyMark JacobyMark Jacoby is a Broadway performer. He has achieved fame from his leading roles in Show Boat, The Phantom of the Opera and Ragtime...
, Lonette McKeeLonette McKeeLonette McKee is an American film and television actress, music composer/producer/songwriter, screenwriter and director.-Biography:...
, Robert MorseRobert MorseRobert Morse is an American actor and singer. Morse is best known for his appearances in musicals and plays on Broadway. He has also acted in movies and television shows. His best known role is that of J. Pierrepont Finch in the 1961 Broadway musical, and 1967 film How to Succeed in Business...
, and Michel Bell (as Joe).
There have been many other studio cast recordings of Show Boat in addition to those mentioned above. The soundtrack of the 1936 film version has appeared on a so-called "bootleg" CD label called Xeno.
Integration
Show Boat boldly portrayed racial issues, and was the first racially integratedRacial integration
Racial integration, or simply integration includes desegregation . In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of race, and the development of a culture that draws on diverse traditions, rather than merely...
musical, in that both black and white performers appeared and sang on stage together. Ziegfeld’s
Florenz Ziegfeld
Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. , , was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies , inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris. He also produced the musical Show Boat...
Follies
Ziegfeld Follies
The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....
allowed solo African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
performers like Bert Williams
Bert Williams
Egbert Austin "Bert" Williams was one of the preeminent entertainers of the Vaudeville era and one of the most popular comedians for all audiences of his time. He was by far the best-selling black recording artist before 1920...
, but would never have had a black woman in the chorus. Show Boat had two choruses — a black chorus and a white chorus, and one commentator noted that "Hammerstein uses the African-American chorus as essentially a Greek chorus
Greek chorus
A Greek chorus is a homogenous, non-individualised group of performers in the plays of classical Greece, who comment with a collective voice on the dramatic action....
, providing clear commentary on the proceedings, whereas the white choruses sing of the not-quite-real."
Show Boat was the first Broadway musical to seriously depict an interracial marriage
Interracial marriage
Interracial marriage occurs when two people of differing racial groups marry. This is a form of exogamy and can be seen in the broader context of miscegenation .-Legality of interracial marriage:In the Western world certain jurisdictions have had regulations...
, as in Edna Ferber's original novel, and to feature a character of mixed race who was "passing
Passing (racial identity)
Racial passing refers to a person classified as a member of one racial group attempting to be accepted as a member of a different racial group...
" for white. The musical comedy Whoopee!
Whoopee!
Whoopee! is a musical comedy with the book, based on Owen Davis's play The Nervous Wreck, written by William Anthony McGuire, music by Walter Donaldson and lyrics by Gus Kahn...
, starring Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor was an American "illustrated song" performer, comedian, dancer, singer, actor and songwriter...
, supposedly depicted a romance between a Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
man and a white woman. In Whoopee!, however, the Native American character turns out to be white.
Language and stereotypes
The show has been the frequent object of controversy, primarily because of the use of the word niggerNigger
Nigger is a noun in the English language, most notable for its usage in a pejorative context to refer to black people , and also as an informal slang term, among other contexts. It is a common ethnic slur...
s in the lyrics (in fact it is the very first word in the opening chorus of the show), and also the historical portrayal of blacks serving as passive laborers and servants. The show originally opened with the black chorus onstage singing:
-
- Niggers all work on the Mississippi.
- Niggers all work while the white folks play —
- Loadin' up boats wid de bales of cotton,
- Gittin' no rest till de Judgement Day.
In subsequent productions, "niggers" has been changed to "colored folk," to "darkies" and in one choice, "Here we all," as in "Here we all work on the Mississippi. Here we all work while the white folk play." In the 1966 Lincoln Center production of the show, produced during the height of the Civil Rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
struggle, this section of the opening chorus was completely omitted rather than simply having the lyric changed. The 1988 CD for EMI restored the original lyric, while the Harold Prince revival chose "colored folk".
Others believe that Kern and Hammerstein wrote the song to give a sympathetic voice to an oppressed people, and that they used the word in an ironic way, when it was so often used in a derogatory way; they were dramatically alerting the audience to the realities of racism:
Show Boat begins with the singing of that most reprehensible word – nigger – yet this is no coon songCoon songCoon songs were a genre of music popular in the United States and around the English-speaking world from 1880 to 1920, that presented a racist and stereotyped image of blacks.-Rise and fall from popularity:...
... [it] immediately establishes race as one of the central themes of the play. This is a protest songProtest songA protest song is a song which is associated with a movement for social change and hence part of the broader category of topical songs . It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre...
, more ironic than angry perhaps, but a protest nonetheless. In the singers' hands, the word nigger has a sardonic tone... in the very opening, Hammerstein has established the gulf between the races, the privilege accorded the white folks and denied the black, and a flavor of the contempt built into the very language that whites used about African-Americans. This is a very effective scene.... These are not caricatureCaricatureA caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...
roles; they are wise, if uneducated, people capable of seeing and feeling more than some of the white folk around them.
The racial situations in the play provoke thoughts of how hard it must have been to be black in the South. In the dialogue, some of the blacks are called "niggers" by the white characters in the story. (Contrary to what is sometimes thought, black slaverySlaverySlavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
is not depicted in the play; U.S. slavery was abolished by 1865, and the story runs from the 1880s to the late 1920s.) At first, it is shocking to believe they are allowed to use a word that negative at all in a play... But in the context in which it is used, it is appropriate due to the impact it makes. It reinforces how much of a derogatory term "nigger" was then and still is today.
The word has never been used in film versions of the musical. In the show, the Sheriff refers to Steve and Julie as having "nigger blood", while in the 1936 and 1951 film versions, this was changed to "Negro blood". Likewise, the unsympathetic Pete calls Queenie a "nigger" in the stage version, but refers to her as "colored" in the 1936 film, and does not use either word in the 1951 film.
Those who consider Show Boat racially insensitive often note that the dialogue and lyrics of the black characters (especially the stevedore
Stevedore
Stevedore, dockworker, docker, dock labourer, wharfie and longshoreman can have various waterfront-related meanings concerning loading and unloading ships, according to place and country....
Joe and his wife Queenie) and choruses use various forms of African American Vernacular English
African American Vernacular English
African American Vernacular English —also called African American English; less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular , or Black Vernacular English —is an African American variety of American English...
. An example of this is shown in the following text:
-
- Hey!
- Where yo' think you're goin'?
- Don't yo' know dis show is startin' soon?
- Hey!
- Jes' a few seats left yere!
- It's light inside an' outside dere's no moon
- What fo' you gals dressed up dicty?
- Where's yo' all gwine?
- Tell dose stingy men o' yourn
- To step up here in line!
Whether or not such language is an accurate reflection of the vernacular of blacks in Mississippi at the time, the effect of its usage has offended critics who see it as perpetuating racial stereotypes. The character Queenie (who sings the above verses) was in the original production played not by an African American but rather by the Italian-American actress Tess Gardella
Tess Gardella
Therese "Tess" Gardella was an Italian American performer whose stage persona was "Aunt Jemima".A native of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Gardella performed on both stage and screen, usually in blackface. In 1927, she originated the role of Queenie in the classic stage musical Show Boat...
in blackface
Blackface
Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...
(Gardella was perhaps best known for portraying Aunt Jemima
Aunt Jemima
Aunt Jemima is a trademark for pancake flour, syrup, and other breakfast foods currently owned by the Quaker Oats Company of Chicago. The trademark dates to 1893, although Aunt Jemima pancake mix debuted in 1889. The Quaker Oats Company first registered the Aunt Jemima trademark in April 1937...
in blackface). Attempts by non-black writers to imitate black language stereotypically in songs like "Ol' Man River
Ol' Man River
"Ol' Man River" is a song in the 1927 musical Show Boat that expresses the African American hardship and struggles of the time with the endless, uncaring flow of the Mississippi River; it is sung from the point-of-view of a dock worker on a showboat, and is the most famous song from the show...
" was alleged to be offensive, a claim that was repeated eight years later by critics of Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess is an opera, first performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward. It was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward...
. However, even these critics sometimes admit that the intentions of Hammerstein were noble, since "Ol' Man River"' was the song in which he first found his lyrical voice, compressing the suffering, resignation, and anger of an entire race into 24 taut lines and doing it so naturally that it's no wonder folks assume the song's a Negro spiritual."
The theatre critics and veterans Richard Eyre
Richard Eyre
Sir Richard Charles Hastings Eyre CBE is an English director of film, theatre, television, and opera.-Biography:Eyre was educated at Sherborne School, an independent school for boys in the market town of Sherborne in north-west Dorset in south-west England, followed by Peterhouse at the University...
and Nicholas Wright believe that Show Boat was revolutionary, not only because it was a radical departure from the previous style of plotless revues, but because it was a show written by non-blacks that portrayed blacks sympathetically rather than condescendingly:
Instead of a line of chorus girls showing their legs in the opening number singing that they were happy, happy, happy, the curtain rose on black dock-hands lifting bales of cotton, and singing about the hardness of their lives. Here was a musical that showed poverty, suffering, bitterness, racial prejudice, a sexual relationship between black and white, a love story which ended unhappily — and of course show business. In "Ol' Man River" the black race was given an anthemAnthemThe term anthem means either a specific form of Anglican church music , or more generally, a song of celebration, usually acting as a symbol for a distinct group of people, as in the term "national anthem" or "sports anthem".-Etymology:The word is derived from the Greek via Old English , a word...
to honor its misery that had the authority of an authentic spiritual.
Revisions and cancellations
Since the musical's 1927 premiere, Show Boat has both been condemned as a prejudiced show based on racial caricatures and championed as a breakthrough work that opened the door for public discourse in the arts about racism in America. Some productions (including one planned for June 2002 in ConnecticutConnecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
) have been cancelled because of objections.
Such cancellations have been criticised by supporters of the arts
Performing arts
The performing arts are those forms art which differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face, and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some physical art object...
. After planned performances by an opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
company in Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough is a large town situated on the south bank of the River Tees in north east England, that sits within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
were "stopped because [they] would be 'distasteful' to ethnic minorities", a local newspaper declared that the actions were "surely taking political correctness too far". A British theatre writer was concerned that "the kind of censorship we've been talking about — for censorship it is — actually militates against a truly integrated society, for it emphasises differences. It puts a wall around groups within society, dividing people by creating metaphorical ghettos, and prevents mutual understanding." Specifically, the cancellation was based on protests of plans to have all the black roles to be played in this production by white actors in blackface, as apparently no black actors had been hired.
As attitudes toward race relations have changed, producers and directors have altered some content to make the musical more "politically correct"
Political correctness
Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
: "Show Boat, more than many musicals, was subject to cuts and revisions within a handful of years after its first performance, all of which altered the dramatic balance of the play."
1993 revival
The 1993 Hal Prince revival, originating in Toronto, brought racial matters into focus. Throughout the production, African Americans constantly cleaned up the mess, moved the sets (even when hydraulicsHydraulics
Hydraulics is a topic in applied science and engineering dealing with the mechanical properties of liquids. Fluid mechanics provides the theoretical foundation for hydraulics, which focuses on the engineering uses of fluid properties. In fluid power, hydraulics is used for the generation, control,...
actually moved them), with their presence constantly commenting on the racial disparities. After a New Year's Eve ball, all the streamers fell on the floor and African Americans immediately began sweeping them away. A montage in the second act showed time passing: it had the revolving door of the Palmer House
Palmer House
The Palmer House Hilton is a famous and historic hotel in downtown Chicago.-History:There have been three Palmer House Hotels at the corner of State and Monroe Streets in Chicago....
in Chicago, with newspaper headlines being shown in quick succession, and snippets of slow motion to highlight a specific moment, accompanied by brief snippets of Ol' Man River. African-American dancers were seen performing a specific dance, and this would change to a scene showing white dancers performing "the same dance. This was meant to illustrate how white performers "appropriated" the music and dancing styles of African Americans. Earlier productions of Show Boat, even the 1927 stage original and the 1936 film version, did not go this far in social commentary.
During the production in Toronto, many black community leaders and their supporters launched widespread opposition and protests to the show, often using "black hecklers shouting insults and waving placards reading SHOW BOAT SPREADS LIES AND HATE and SHOW BOAT = CULTURAL GENOCIDE" in front of the theatre. Some sympathetic to the protesters thought it was ironic that a supposedly anti-black show was receiving attention and support, while the black community in Toronto was facing economic and social problems. A journalist said,
[the] conclusion that the protest was "misguided" reveals [the] total lack of understanding of the social and political cleavages in North York. It suggests that those blacks protesting Show Boat are wasting their time, when they should be engaged in more pressing struggles for equality in education, employment and housing. The fact is these people are working toward those goals every day. The protesters are trustees, teachers, lawyers, social service workers, and, dare I say it, leaders in their community.
While Hal Prince's production of Show Boat met criticism in Toronto, various theatre critics in New York
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
felt that Prince highlighted racial inequality in his production as a means of showing its injustice, as well as to show the historical suffering of blacks. A critic noted that he included "an absolutely beautiful piece of music cut from the original production and from the movie ["Mis'ry's Comin' Round"]... a haunting gospel melody sung by the black chorus. The addition of this number is so successful because it salutes the dignity and the pure talent of the black workers and allows them to shine for a brief moment on the center stage of the showboat".
Analysis
Many commentators, both black and non-black, view the show as an outdated and stereotypical commentary on race relations that portrays blacks in a negative or inferior position. Douglass K. Daniel of Kansas State UniversityKansas State University
Kansas State University, commonly shortened to K-State, is an institution of higher learning located in Manhattan, Kansas, in the United States...
has commented that it is a "racially flawed story", and the African-Canadian writer M. Nourbese Philip claims
The affront at the heart of Show Boat is still very alive today. It begins with the book and its negative and one-dimensional images of Black people, and continues on through the colossal and deliberate omission of the Black experience, including the pain of a people traumatized by four centuries of attempted genocide and exploitation. Not to mention the appropriation of Black music for the profit of the very people who oppressed Blacks and Africans. All this continues to offend deeply. The ol' man river of racism continues to run through the history of these productions and is very much part of this (Toronto) production. It is part of the overwhelming need of white Americans and white Canadians to convince themselves of our inferiority – that our demands don't represent a challenge to them, their privilege and their superiority.
On the other hand, supporters of the musical believe that the depictions of racism should be regarded not as stereotyping blacks but rather satirizing
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
the common national attitudes that both held those stereotypes and reinforced them through discrimination. In other words, just as quoting an out-of-context line from a play and claiming that it is the view of the playwright is absurd and deceptive, the fact that a dramatic or literary work portrays racist attitudes and institutions does not mean that it endorses them – in the words of The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
theatre critic John Lahr
John Lahr
John Lahr is an American theater critic, and the son of actor Bert Lahr. Since 1992, he has been the senior drama critic at The New Yorker magazine.-Biography:...
, "describing racism doesn't make Show Boat racist. The production is meticulous in honoring the influence of black culture not just in the making of the nation's wealth but, through music, in the making of its modern spirit."
Broadway writers have long used the musical as a medium to call for tolerance and racial harmony, as in Finian's Rainbow
Finian's Rainbow
Finian's Rainbow is a musical with a book by E.Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy, lyrics by Harburg, and music by Burton Lane. The 1947 Broadway production ran for 725 performances. Several revivals and a 1968 film version followed. A Broadway revival ran from October 8, 2009 until January 17, 2010...
and (by Hammerstein) in South Pacific
South Pacific (musical)
South Pacific is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its...
. Those who attempt to understand works like Show Boat and Porgy and Bess through the eyes of their creators usually consider that the show "was a statement AGAINST racism. That was the point of Edna Ferber's novel. That was the point of the show. That's how Oscar wrote it.... I think this is about as far from racism as you can get." Perhaps the strongest argument in defense of Show Boat lies in an understanding of the socially concerned intentions, aims, and backgrounds of its authors. According to Rabbi Alan Berg, Kern and Hammerstein's score to Show Boat is "a tremendous expression of the ethics of tolerance and compassion." As Harold Prince (not Kern, to whom the quote has been mistakenly attributed) states in the original production notes to his 1993 production of the show:
Throughout pre-production and rehearsal, I was committed to eliminate any inadvertent stereotype in the original material, dialogue which may seem "Uncle Tom" today... However, I was determined not to rewrite history. The fact that during the 45-year period depicted in our musical there were lynchings, imprisonment, and forced labor of the blacks in the United States is irrefutable. Indeed, the United States still cannot hold its head high with regard to racism.
Oscar Hammerstein's commitment to idealizing and encouraging tolerance theatrically started with his libretto to Show Boat. It can be seen in his later works, many of which were set to music by Richard Rodgers
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...
. Carmen Jones
Carmen Jones
Carmen Jones is a 1943 Broadway musical starring Muriel Smith in the title role, later made into a 1954 musical film; the play also ran for a season in 1991 at London's Old Vic and most recently in London's Royal Festival Hall in the Southbank Centre in 2007. It is an updating of the Georges Bizet...
is an attempt to present a modern version of the classic French opera
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
through the experiences of African Americans during wartime, and South Pacific
South Pacific (musical)
South Pacific is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its...
explores interracial marriage
Interracial marriage
Interracial marriage occurs when two people of differing racial groups marry. This is a form of exogamy and can be seen in the broader context of miscegenation .-Legality of interracial marriage:In the Western world certain jurisdictions have had regulations...
and prejudice. Finally, The King and I
The King and I
The King and I is a stage musical, the fifth by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The work is based on the 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon and derives from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, who became governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in...
deals with different cultures' preconceived notions regarding each other and the possibility for cultural inclusiveness in societies.
Regarding the original author of Show Boat, Ann Shapiro states that
Edna Ferber was taunted for being Jewish; as a young woman eager to launch her career as a journalist, she was told that the Chicago TribuneChicago TribuneThe Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
did not hire women reporters. Despite her experience of antisemitism and sexism, she idealized America, creating in her novels an American myth where strong women and downtrodden men of any race prevail... [Show Boat] create[s] visions of racial harmony... in a fictional world that purported to be America but was more illusion than reality. Characters in Ferber's novels achieve assimilationAssimilationAssimilation may refer to:*Assimilation , a linguistic process by which a sound becomes similar to an adjacent sound...
and acceptance that was periodically denied Ferber herself throughout her life.
Whether or not the show is racist, many contend that productions of it should continue as it serves as a history lesson of American race relations. According to African-American opera singer Phillip Lamar Boykin, who played the role of Joe in a 2000 tour,
"Whenever a show deals with race issues, it gives the audience sweaty palms. I agree with putting it on the stage and making the audience think about it. We see where we came from so we don't repeat it, though we still have a long way to go. A lot of history would disappear if the show was put away forever. An artist must be true to an era. I'm happy with it."