Show Boat

Background

Ferber and her novel Show Boat

In April 1926, Edna Ferber's fifth novel, Show Boat, began publication in a serialized version in the magazine Woman's Home Companion (WHC). The complete book was released in August 1926 by Doubleday, Page and Company before the magazine series finished the following September. The work was unusual content for a women's magazine of the period, with its inclusion of taboo subjects like infidelity, desertion, single motherhood, prostitution, gambling, and miscegenation. It was well received by both the public and the critics from the beginning, and the author received offers for film adaptations after the first two installments of the novel were published in WHC. It became a best-selling novel.

It centers on Magnolia, the daughter of the owners of a showboat, Cotton Blossom, Captain Andy Hawks and his wife, Parthy. Musically gifted as a child, she learns from the ship's performers and from the Cotton Blossom's Black cook Queenie and her husband, the dock worker Jo. Despite her mother's opposition, Magnolia becomes an actress and singer on the boat's stage. She falls in love with her co-star, gambler Gaylord Ravenal; they marry and have a child. Ravenal's gambling addiction and huge debts, philandering with prostitutes, and ill health lead him to abandon his family. Magnolia manages to move on and thrive because of her prodigious singing talent; she is described as a white woman gifted with the singing voice of a Black vocalist. Musicologist Todd Decker stated:

Magnolia's embrace of show business as a means to survive as a single mother is directly linked to Ferber's use of black music to characterize her heroine. Magnolia's black voice thus proves a defining aspect of Ferber's main character and a central pillar of the novel's structure and larger themes. Magnolia's story and the plot of Show Boat alike trace the course of American life across the divide separating the nineteenth century from the twentieth, an epochal shift felt with particular power in the 1920s when the effects of World War I and a series of overlapping transformations in daily life were altering the fabric of the nation.

Ferber's novel was inspired by a conversation she had with the producer Winthrop Ames in 1924. Ames, to whom Ferber dedicated her novel, was producing Ferber's play Minick, which was preparing for its Broadway debut; its tryout performances were not going well. Following a difficult day, Ames joked that they should all join a showboat if the play flopped. Ferber had never heard of a showboat, and her curiosity began her fascination with 19th century showboats on the Mississippi River. She began months of research and became an expert on the types of 19th-century paddle steamer ships active on the Mississippi.

Adapting Ferber's novel

Ferber's Show Boat was an unlikely candidate for a musical adaptation in the 1920s: Its heroine's unhappy marriage, her independence, and her grit in surviving as a single mother after being abandoned by a morally flawed husband ran counter to the typical portrayal of women in Broadway musicals as helpless victims who need rescuing. And Julie's tragic subplot was far darker than Broadway musicals' typical content. Rather than ending with a happy marriage to her male rescuer, Ferber's novel depicts Magnolia's marriage as the source of her problems followed by her triumphant solo journey to independence and success. Nevertheless, the novel's recurring music and entertainment themes made it an irresistible challenge for Kern and Hammerstein to adapt for the musical stage. After the 1925 success of the musical Sunny in collaboration with Hammerstein, Kern sought a new Broadway project for the pair. By late 1926 he was determined to make Ferber's novel the subject of their next musical. Hammerstein agreed, and the pair began writing material even before obtaining permission from Ferber to use her work or having a producer attached to the project.

From the beginning they were determined to attract Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. as a backing producer, as they felt only he could mount a production large enough in scale to successfully portray Ferber's story. They were aware that Show Boat, with its serious and dramatic nature, was an unusual choice for Ziegfeld, who was best known for revues featuring romantic comedy, such as the Ziegfeld Follies. Kern and Hammerstein worked to craft a piece that would sufficiently fill the Ziegfeld mold before approaching the producer. To make Show Boat fit the Ziegfeld brand, the pair transformed the novel into a romance, fundamentally changing Ferber's tale of three generations of women in a family, Parthy, Magnolia, and Kim. Kern and Hammerstein eliminated much of Parthy and Captain Andy's story, including Captain Andy's death, both to lighten the tale and refocus the story on Magnolia's relationship with Ravenal. They skipped Magnolia's childhood and relationship with her mother, and rather than concentrating on the relationship with her daughter, the musical ends with her reconciliation with Ravenal, a redemptive and more romantic arc than in the novel. They also brightened Julie's story somewhat and harmonized it with broader social themes.

Kern arranged an introduction to Ferber in October 1926 through their mutual friend, the critic Alexander Woollcott, during the intermission of Kern's newest musical Criss Cross. Ferber was shocked by the proposal, concerned that the work was not suitable for the musical genre. She felt the work's 50-year time span, and her treatment of topics like spousal desertion, alcoholism, and miscegenation did not fit the frivolous, light-hearted mold of popular musicals. She also knew that racially integrated casts of Black and white actors and singers had never been attempted before on the Broadway stage. Ferber was finally won over by Kern and Hammersteins' assurance that the musical would not emulate the typical "frivolous 'girlie show'" of the musical stage. On November 17, 1926, she signed a contract giving the creative duo the musical-dramatic rights to her novel.

Synopsis

Act I

In 1887, the show boat Cotton Blossom arrives at the river dock in Natchez, Mississippi. The Reconstruction era had ended a decade earlier, and white-dominated Southern legislatures have imposed racial segregation and Jim Crow rules. The boat's owner, Cap'n Andy Hawks, introduces his actors to the crowd on the levee. A fistfight 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, and the crowd follows.

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 Parthenia Ann ("Parthy"). Magnolia is likewise smitten with Ravenal ("Make Believe"). She seeks advice from Joe, a Black dock worker aboard the boat, who has returned from buying flour for his wife Queenie, the ship's cook. He replies that he has "seen a lot like [Ravenal] on the river." As Magnolia 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 does not seem to care what the world's troubles are, but "jes' keeps rollin' along". Magnolia finds Julie inside and announces that she is in love. Julie cautions her that this stranger could be just a "no-account river feller". Magnolia says that if she found out he was "no-account", she would stop loving him. Julie warns her that it is not that easy to stop loving someone, explaining that she will always love Steve and singing a few lines of "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man". Queenie overhears – she is surprised that Julie knows that song as she has only heard "colored folks" sing it. Magnolia remarks 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 the show cannot proceed because Julie is a mulatto who has been passing as white and local law prohibits mixed marriages. Julie admits that her mother was Black, but Steve tells the sheriff that he also has "black blood" in him, so their marriage is legal in Mississippi. The troupe backs him up, boosted by the ship's pilot Windy McClain, a longtime friend of the sheriff. The couple have escaped the charge of miscegenation, but they still have to leave the show boat; identified as Black, they can no longer perform for the segregated white audience. Cap'n Andy fires Pete, but in spite of his sympathy for Julie and Steve, he cannot violate the law for them.

Musical numbers

The musical numbers in the original production were as follows:

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, four songs, "Mis'ry's Comin' Aroun", "I Would Like to Play a Lover's Part", "Let's Start the New Year" and "It's Getting Hotter in the North", were cut from the show. The song "Be Happy, Too" was cut after the Washington, D.C., tryout. "Let's Start the New Year" was performed in the 1989 Paper Mill Playhouse production.

Two songs, "Till Good Luck Comes My Way" (sung by Ravenal) and "Hey Feller!" (sung by Queenie), were written mainly to cover scenery changes. They were discarded beginning with the 1946 revival, although "Till Good Luck" was included in the 1994 Prince revival. The comedy song "I Might Fall Back on You" was also cut beginning in 1946. It was restored in the 1951 film version and several stage productions since the 1980s.

The score also includes four songs not 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 features an instrumental version of "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight".

Some of the following numbers have been cut or revised in 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):

Overture – The original overture, used in all stage productions up to 1946 is based chiefly on the deleted song "Mis'ry's Comin' Aroun", as Kern wanted to save this song in some form. The song was restored in the Prince 1994 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 Bennett, who orchestrated most of Kern's later shows.

"Cotton Blossom" – This number is included in all the stage productions, and shorter versions were used in the 1936 and 1951 film versions.

Production history

Original 1927 production

Ziegfeld previewed the show 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's direction was credited to Zeke Colvan at the time it premiered, but Oscar Hammerstein II, who remained uncredited, was also responsible for much of the show's staging. 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 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 Terris "a revelation"; Winninger "extraordinarily persuasive and convincing"; and Bledsoe's singing "remarkably effective".

Paul Robeson

The character Joe, the stevedore who sings "Ol' Man River", was expanded from the novel and written specifically by Kern and Hammerstein 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 London premiere 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."

North American revivals

After closing at the Ziegfeld Theatre in 1929, the original production toured extensively. The national company is notable for including Irene Dunne as Magnolia. Hattie McDaniel played Queenie in a 1933 West Coast production, joined by tenor Allan Jones as Ravenal. 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.

In 1946, a major new Broadway revival was produced by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II at the show's original home, the Ziegfeld Theatre. The 1946 revival featured a revised score and new song by Kern and Hammerstein, and a new overture and orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett. The show was directed by Hammerstein and Hassard Short and featured Jan Clayton (Magnolia), Charles Fredricks (Ravenal), Carol Bruce (Julie), Kenneth Spencer (Joe), Helen Dowdy (Queenie), and Buddy Ebsen (Frank). Kern died just weeks before the January 5, 1946 opening, making it the last show he worked on. The production ran for 418 performances and then toured extensively. Its cost was reportedly $300,000, and a month before the Broadway closing, it was reported as still $130,000 from breaking even.

Additional New York revivals were produced in 1948 and 1954 at the New York City Center with the 1948 production starred Billy House as Cap'n Andy. The 1954 production was mounted by the New York City Opera with Burl Ives (Cap'n Andy), Laurel Hurley (Magnolia), Robert Rounseville (Ravenal), Helena Bliss (Julie), Marjorie Gateson (Parthy), Boris Aplon (Pete), Lawrence Winters (Joe), and Helen Phillips (Queenie). The Music Theatre of Lincoln Center company produced Show Boat in 1966 at the New York State Theater in a new production. It starred Barbara Cook (Magnolia), Constance Towers (Julie), Stephen Douglass (Ravenal), David Wayne (Cap'n Andy), Margaret Hamilton (Parthy) and William Warfield (Joe). It was produced by Richard Rodgers, and Robert Russell Bennett once again provided a new overture and revised orchestrations.

The Houston Grand Opera staged a revival of Show Boat that premiered at Jones Hall in Houston in June 1982 and then toured to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., and finally to the Gershwin Theatre on Broadway in 1983. The production also toured overseas to the Cairo Opera House in Egypt. The show was produced by Robert A. Buckley and Douglas Urbanski. Mickey Rooney portrayed Cap'n Andy for portions of the tour, but Donald O'Connor took over the role on Broadway. Lonette McKee (Julie) and Karla Burns (Queenie), and director Michael Kahn all received Tony Award nominations for their work. Other cast members included Ron Raines (Gaylord Ravenal), Sheryl Woods (Magnolia), Avril Gentles (Parthy), Bruce Hubbard (Joe), and Paige O'Hara (Ellie).

Toronto (1993, later Broadway)

Livent Inc. produced Show Boat in Toronto in 1993, starring Rebecca Luker as Magnolia, Mark Jacoby as Ravenal, Lonette McKee as Julie, Robert Morse as Cap'n Andy, Elaine Stritch as Parthy, Michel Bell as Joe and Gretha Boston as Queenie. Co-produced and directed by Harold Prince and choreographed by Susan Stroman, closing in June 1995. A Broadway production opened at the George Gershwin Theatre on October 2, 1994, and continued for 947 performances making it Broadway's longest-running Show Boat to date. It starred most of the Toronto cast, but with John McMartin as Cap'n Andy. Robert Morse remained in the Toronto cast and was joined by Cloris Leachman as Parthy, Patti Cohenour as Magnolia, Hugh Panaro as Ravenal, and Valerie Pettiford as Julie.

The production departed from previous iterations by tightening the book, dropping or adding songs used in or cut from various productions, and highlighting its racial elements. Prince transformed "Why Do I Love You?" from a duet between Magnolia and Ravenal to a lullaby sung by Parthy to Magnolia's baby girl, and then reprised as an up-tempo production number finale. The love duet for Magnolia and Ravenal, "I Have the Room Above Her", 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 production went on tour, playing at the Kennedy Center, and it was staged in London (1998) and Melbourne, Australia.

London productions

The original London West End production of Show Boat opened May 3, 1928, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and featured among the cast, Cedric Hardwicke as Capt. Andy, 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 1971 production at the Adelphi Theatre, which ran for 909 performances. Derek Royle was Cap'n Andy, Cleo Laine was Julie, and Pearl Hackney played Parthy Ann.

The Hal Prince production ran at the Prince Edward Theatre in 1998, and was nominated for the Olivier Award, Outstanding Musical Production (1999). Other notable revivals in England have included the joint Opera North/Royal Shakespeare Company production of 1989, which ran at the London Palladium in 1990, and the 2006 production directed by Francesca Zambello, presented by Raymond Gubbay at London's Royal Albert Hall. It was the first fully staged musical production in the history of that venue. Karla Burns, who had appeared as Queenie in the 1983 Broadway revival, reprised the role for the Opera North and RSC production, becoming the first Black performer to win the Laurence Olivier Award.

A production was transferred from Sheffield's Crucible Theatre to London's New London Theatre with previews beginning on April 9, 2016, and an official opening on April 25, 2016. It was directed by Daniel Evans using the Goodspeed Musicals version of the show. The cast included Gina Beck as Magnolia, Lucy Briers as Parthy Ann and Malcolm Sinclair as Cap'n Andy. Despite very favorable reviews, the show closed at the end of August 2016.

Adaptations

Film and television

Show Boat has been adapted for film three times, and for television once.

1929: Show Boat. Universal. Released in silent and partial sound versions. Not a film version of the musical; its plot is based on the original Edna Ferber novel. Immediately 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 Boat. Universal. Directed by James Whale. A mostly faithful film version of the show, featuring four members of the original Broadway cast, as well as Irene Dunne, who had appeared in the national tour. Other cast members from stage productions included Jones as Ravenal, McDaniel as Queenie, Robeson as Joe, Winninger as Cap'n Andy, Morgan as Julie and White as Frank. Screenplay by Oscar Hammerstein II; music arrangements by Robert Russell Bennett; music direction and conducting by Victor Baraville.

1946: Till the Clouds Roll By. MGM. In this fictionalized film biography of composer Jerome Kern (played by Robert Walker), Show Boat's 1927 opening night on Broadway is depicted in a lavishly staged fifteen-minute medley of six of the show's songs. The number features Kathryn Grayson, Tony Martin, Lena Horne, Virginia O'Brien, Caleb Peterson, and William Halligan as, respectively, Magnolia, Ravenal, Julie, Ellie, Joe, and Cap'n Andy.

1951: Show Boat. 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.

1989: A live performance by the Paper Mill Playhouse was videotaped for television and shown on Great Performances on PBS. 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 radio at least seven times. Due to network censorship rules, many of the radio productions eliminated the miscegenation aspect of the plot. Notable exceptions were the 1940 Cavalcade of America broadcast and the 1952 Lux Radio Theatre broadcast.

The Campbell Playhouse (CBS Radio, March 31, 1939). Directed and introduced by Orson Welles. This was a non-musical version of the story that was based more closely on Ferber's novel than on the musical. From the original stage cast Helen Morgan repeated her portrayal of Julie, here singing one song not from the musical. Welles portrayed Cap'n Andy, Margaret Sullavan 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 America (NBC Radio, May 28, 1940). A half-hour dramatization with Jeanette Nolan, John McIntire, Agnes Moorehead and the Ken Christy Chorus. Although brief, it was remarkably faithful to the original show.

Lux Radio Theatre (CBS, June 1940). Introduced and produced by Cecil B. DeMille, it featured Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, and Charles Winninger, 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. Only a few lines of Ol' Man River were heard, sung by a chorus. While supposedly based on the 1936 film, this production used the ending of the original show, which the film did not use.

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 Forrest as Julie, Charles Winninger as Cap'n Andy, Ernest Whitman as Joe, and Elvia Allman as Parthy.

The Railroad Hour (ABC Radio, 1950). Condensed to a half-hour, this version featured singers Dorothy Kirsten, Gordon MacRae, 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 (CBS, February 11, 1952). A radio version of the 1951 MGM film featuring Kathryn Grayson, Ava Gardner, Howard Keel, and William Warfield from the film's cast. Jay C. Flippen portrayed Cap'n Andy. This version was extremely faithful to the 1951 film adaptation.

Concert hall

On December 29, 1941, the Cleveland Orchestra, under the direction of Artur Rodziński, premiered and recorded the orchestral work Show Boat: A Scenario for Orchestra which was crafted by Kern. A 22-minute orchestral work weaving together themes from the show, it was later recorded by John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra on the 1996 album The Hollywood Bowl on Broadway.

Selected recordings

1928 – original London cast album, with the show's original orchestrations. This was released in England on 78 rpm records years before being sold in the United States. As the U.S. had not yet begun making original cast albums of Broadway shows, the 1927 Broadway cast as a whole was never recorded performing the songs, although Jules Bledsoe, Helen Morgan, and Tess Gardella did record individual numbers from it. The cast on the 1928 London album included Edith Day, Howett Worster, Marie Burke and Alberta Hunter. Due to contractual restrictions, cast member Paul Robeson was replaced on the album as Joe by his understudy, baritone Norris Smith. But that same year, Robeson, with the same chorus that accompanied him in the show, did record "Ol' Man River" in its original orchestration. That recording was later released separately. His rendition appears on the EMI CD "Paul Robeson Sings 'Ol' Man River' and Other Favorites".

1932 – studio cast recording on 78 rpm by Brunswick Records. Later re-released by Columbia Records on 78 rpm, 33-1/3 rpm and briefly on CD. This recording featured Helen Morgan, Paul Robeson, James Melton, 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 Young, and the original orchestrations and vocal arrangements were not used.

1946 – Broadway revival cast recording. Issued on 78 rpm, LP and CD. The 78 rpm and LP versions were issued by Columbia, the CD by Sony. 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 Clayton, Carol Bruce, Charles Fredericks, Kenneth Spencer, and Collette Lyons were featured. Buddy Ebsen also appeared in the revival, but not on the album. Includes the new song "Nobody Else But Me".

1951 – MGM Records soundtrack album, with cast members of the 1951 film version. The first film soundtrack of Show Boat to be issued on records. Appeared both on 45 rpm and 33-1/3 rpm, later on CD in a much expanded edition. Actress Ava Gardner, whose singing voice was replaced by Annette Warren's 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. Orchestrations were by Conrad Salinger, Robert Franklyn, and Alexander Courage.

Racial issues

Integration

Show Boat boldly portrayed racial issues and was the first racially integrated musical, in that both Black and white performers appeared and sang on stage together.

Ziegfeld's Follies featured solo African American performers such as Bert Williams, but would not have included a Black woman in the chorus. Show Boat was structured with two choruses – a Black chorus and a white chorus. Ethnomusicologist Richard Keeling 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." In Show Boat Jerome Kern used the AABA-chorus form exclusively in songs sung by African-American characters ("Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man"), a form that later would be regarded as typical of "white" popular music.

Show Boat was the first Broadway musical to seriously depict an interracial marriage, as in Ferber's original novel, and to feature a character of mixed race who was "passing" for white.

Language and stereotypes

The show has generated controversy for the subject matter of interracial marriage, the historical portrayal of Black people working as laborers and servants in the 19th-century South, and the use of the word niggers in the lyrics (this is the first word in the opening chorus of the show). Originally the show 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 Judgment 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 folks play." In the 1966 Lincoln Center production of the show, produced two years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, this section of the opening chorus was omitted rather than having words changed. The 1971 London revival used "Here we all work on the Mississippi". The 1988 CD for EMI restored the original 1927 lyric, while the Harold Prince revival chose "colored folk". The Paper Mill Playhouse production, videotaped and telecast by PBS in 1989, used the word "nigger" when said by an unsympathetic character, but otherwise used the word "Negro".

Many critics believe that Kern and Hammerstein wrote the opening chorus to give a sympathetic voice to an oppressed people, and that they intended its use in an ironic way, as it had so often been used in a derogatory way. They wanted to alert the audience to the realities of racism:

'Show Boat begins with the singing of that most reprehensible word – nigger – yet this is no coon song... [it] immediately establishes race as one of the central themes of the play. This is a protest song, 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 caricature roles; they are wise, if uneducated, people capable of seeing and feeling more than some of the white folk around them.

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 Connecticut) have been cancelled because of objections. Such cancellations have been criticized by supporters of the arts. After planned performances in 1999 by an amateur company in Middlesbrough, England, where "the show would entail white actors 'blacking up'" were "stopped because [they] would be 'distasteful' to ethnic minorities", the critic for a local newspaper declared that the cancellation was "surely taking political correctness too far. … [T]he kind of censorship we've been talking about – for censorship it is – actually militates against a truly integrated society, for it emphasizes differences. It puts a wall around groups within society, dividing people by creating metaphorical ghettos, and prevents mutual understanding".

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."

1993 revival

The 1993 Hal Prince revival, originating in Toronto, was deliberately staged to cast attention on racial disparities; throughout the production, African-American actors constantly cleaned up messes, appeared to move the sets (even when hydraulics actually moved them), and performed other menial tasks. 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 using 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 Toronto production, many Black community leaders and their supporters expressed opposition to the show, protesting in front of the theatre, "shouting insults and waving placards reading Show Boat Spreads Lies and Hate and Show Boat = Cultural Genocide". Various theatre critics in New York, however, commented that Prince highlighted racial inequality in his production to show its injustice, as well as to show the historical suffering of Black people. 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 Black people in a negative or inferior position. Douglass K. Daniel of Kansas State University 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.

Supporters of the musical believe that the depictions of racism should be regarded not as stereotyping black people but rather satirizing the common national attitudes that both held those stereotypes and reinforced them through discrimination. 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.

As described by Joe Bob Briggs: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."

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 production notes to his 1993 production of the show:

Awards and nominations

References and notes

References

Asch, Amy, ed. (2008). The complete lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 9780375413582.

Barrios, Richard (1995). A Song in the Dark: The Birth of the Musical Film. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195088113.

Block, Geoffrey (1997). Enchanted Evenings: The Broadway Musical from Show Boat to Sondheim. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-510791-8.

Block, Geoffrey Holden (2023). A Fine Romance: Adapting Broadway to Hollywood in the Studio System Era. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780197501733.

Bloom, Ken; Vlastnik, Frank (2004). Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of all Time. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers. ISBN 1-57912-390-2.

Dietz, Dan (2019). The Complete Book of 1920s Broadway Musicals. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 9781442245280.

Dietz, Dan (2018). The Complete Book of 1930s Broadway Musicals. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 9781538102770.

Dietz, Dan (2015). The Complete Book of 1940s Broadway Musicals. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 9781442245280.

Dietz, Dan (2014). The Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 9781442235052.

Dietz, Dan (2016a). The Complete Book of 1980s Broadway Musicals. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 9781442260924.

Dietz, Dan (2016b). The Complete Book of 1990s Broadway Musicals. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 9781442272149.