Show Boat

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Agnes Moorehead
Agnes Robertson Moorehead (December 6, 1900 – April 30, 1974) 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 for her role as the witch Endora in the series Bewitched.
http://wn.com/Agnes_Moorehead
Alberta Hunter
Alberta Hunter (April 1, 1895 – October 17, 1984) 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. In the 1950s, she retired from performing and entered the medical field, only to successfully resume her singing career in her eighties.
http://wn.com/Alberta_Hunter
Alexander Woollcott
Alexander Humphreys Woollcott (January 19, 1887 – January 23, 1943) was an American critic and commentator for The New Yorker magazine, and a member of the Algonquin Round Table.
http://wn.com/Alexander_Woollcott
Allan Jones (actor)
Allan Jones (14 October 1907, Old Forge, Pennsylvania – 27 June 1992, New York, New York) was an American actor and singer. For many years he was married to actress Irene Hervey; their son is American pop singer Jack Jones.
http://wn.com/Allan_Jones_(actor)
Anne Jeffreys
Anne Jeffreys (born on January 26, 1923) is an American actress and singer.
http://wn.com/Anne_Jeffreys
Ava Gardner
actor
http://wn.com/Ava_Gardner
Barbara Cook
Barbara Cook (born October 25, 1927) is an American singer and actress who first came to prominence in the 1950s after starring in the original Broadway musicals Candide (1956) and The Music Man (1957) among others, winning a Tony Award for the latter. She continued performing mostly in theatre until the mid 1970s, when she began a second career that continues to this day as a cabaret and concert singer.
http://wn.com/Barbara_Cook
Bert Williams
:This is about the Broadway performer Bert Williams. For the English footballer, see Bert Williams (footballer)
http://wn.com/Bert_Williams
Betty Grable
Betty Grable (December 18, 1916 – July 2, 1973) was an American actress, dancer and singer.
http://wn.com/Betty_Grable
Brooks Atkinson
Justin Brooks Atkinson (November 28, 1894 – January 14, 1984) was an American theatre critic. He worked for The New York Times from 1925 to 1960. In his obituary, the Times called him "the most important reviewer of his time."
http://wn.com/Brooks_Atkinson
Bruce Hubbard
Bruce Hubbard (1952-1991) was an African-American operatic baritone. He attended Indiana University. He was a music major and helped coach actors that appeared in musicals.
http://wn.com/Bruce_Hubbard
Busby Berkeley
Busby Berkeley (November 29, 1895 – March 14, 1976) 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. Berkeley's works used large numbers of showgirls and props as fantasy elements in kaleidoscopic on-screen performances.
http://wn.com/Busby_Berkeley
Carol Bruce
Carol Bruce (November 15, 1919 – October 9, 2007) was an American band singer, Broadway star, and film and television actress.
http://wn.com/Carol_Bruce
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille (August 12, 1881 – January 21, 1959) 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. Among his best-known films are The Ten Commandments (1956), Cleopatra (1934), and The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
http://wn.com/Cecil_B_DeMille
Charles K. Harris
Charles Kassel Harris (May 1, 1867 – December 22, 1930) 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". He is one of the early pioneers of Tin Pan Alley.
http://wn.com/Charles_K_Harris
Charles Winninger
Charles Winninger (May 26, 1884 – January 27, 1969) was an American stage and film actor, most often cast in comedies or musicals, but equally at home in drama.
http://wn.com/Charles_Winninger
Cleo Laine
Dame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth, DBE (born 28 October 1927) is a jazz singer and an actress, noted for her scat singing and vocal range. Though her natural range is that of a contralto she is able to produce a "G above high C" giving her an overall compass of well over three octaves.
http://wn.com/Cleo_Laine
Constance Towers
Constance Mary Towers (born May 20, 1933) is an American actress and singer.
http://wn.com/Constance_Towers
Dennis King (actor)
http://wn.com/Dennis_King_(actor)
Dora Bryan
Dora May Bryan OBE (born 7 February 1923) is an actress of stage, film and television, possibly best-known for her role as Roz in the British television series Last of the Summer Wine.
http://wn.com/Dora_Bryan
Dorothy Kirsten
Dorothy Kirsten (July 6, 1910, Montclair, New Jersey — November 18, 1992, Los Angeles, California)Grove Dictionary lists her birthdate as July 7, not July 6. Max de Schauensee. "Kirsten, Dorothy." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. July 7, 2008 . was an American operatic soprano.
http://wn.com/Dorothy_Kirsten
Douglas Urbanski
Douglas Urbanski (born February 17, 1957) is an American theatre impresario, raconteur and film producer.
http://wn.com/Douglas_Urbanski
Eddie Bracken
Edward Vincent "Eddie" Bracken (February 7, 1915 – November 14, 2002) was an American actor.
http://wn.com/Eddie_Bracken
Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor (January 31, 1892 – October 10, 1964) was an American "illustrated song" performer, comedian, dancer, singer, actor and songwriter. Familiar to Broadway, radio, movie and early television audiences, this "Apostle of Pep" was regarded almost as a family member by millions because his top-rated radio shows revealed intimate stories and amusing anecdotes about his wife Ida and five daughters. Some of his hits include "Makin' Whoopee", "Ida", "If You Knew Susie", "MA! He's Makin' Eyes at Me", "Margie" and "How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree?)" He also wrote a few songs, including "Merrily We Roll Along", the Merry Melodies Warner Bros. cartoon theme.
http://wn.com/Eddie_Cantor
Edith Day
Edith Day (April 10, 1896 - May 1, 1971) was an American actress best known for her roles in musicals.
http://wn.com/Edith_Day
Edna Ferber
Edna Ferber (August 15, 1885 – April 16, 1968) was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels were especially popular and included the Pulitzer Prize-winning So Big (1924), Show Boat (1926; made into the celebrated 1927 musical), and Giant (1952; made into the 1956 Hollywood movie).
http://wn.com/Edna_Ferber
Edna May Oliver
Edna May Oliver (November 9, 1883 – November 9, 1942) was an American film actress. During the 1930s, she was one of the American screen's best-known character actresses often playing tart-tongued spinsters.
http://wn.com/Edna_May_Oliver
Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch (born February 2, 1926) is an American actress and vocalist. She has appeared in numerous stage plays and musicals, feature films, and many television programs. She is known for her performance of "The Ladies Who Lunch" in Stephen Sondheim's 1970 musical Company, her 2001 one-woman show Elaine Stritch at Liberty, and recently for her role as Jack Donaghy's mother Colleen on NBC's 30 Rock. She has been nominated for the Tony Award four times in various categories, and Elaine Stritch at Liberty won. She appeared on the Cosby show.
http://wn.com/Elaine_Stritch
Elvia Allman
Elvia Allman (September 19, 1904; Enochville, North Carolina – March 6, 1992; Santa Monica, California) 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. Her mark in TV history is also insured by her memorable performance as the stern, no-nonsense boss in the classic I Love Lucy "Candy Factory" episode, "Job Switching" ("If one piece of candy goes by on the conveyor belt without being wrapped, ''you're fired!'').
http://wn.com/Elvia_Allman
Eva Puck
Eva Puck (1892 - 1979) was a vaudeville performer, appearing with her husband Sammy White as Puck and White. They appeared in Broadway shows such as the Rodgers and Hart musical The Girl Friend (1926) and Jerome Kern's Show Boat (1927).
http://wn.com/Eva_Puck
Florenz Ziegfeld
Florenz "Flo" Ziegfeld, Jr. (March 21, 1867 – July 22, 1932) was an American Broadway impresario. He is best known for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies (1907-1931), inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris. He was known as the "glorifier of the American girl".
http://wn.com/Florenz_Ziegfeld
Francesca Zambello
Francesca Zambello (born 1956) 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. She attended Moscow University in 1976 and graduated from Colgate University in 1978.
http://wn.com/Francesca_Zambello
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire (May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987), born Frederick Austerlitz, 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. He is particularly associated with Ginger Rogers, with whom he made ten films.
http://wn.com/Fred_Astaire
Frederica von Stade
Frederica von Stade (born June 1, 1945), 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 Marriage of Figaro at the Santa Fe Opera. "It was two of the newcomers who left the audience dazzled: Frederica von Stade as Cherubino and Kiri Te Kanawa as the Countess. Everyone knew at once that these were brilliant finds. History has confirmed that first impression."
http://wn.com/Frederica_von_Stade
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers (July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century.
http://wn.com/Ginger_Rogers
Gogi Grant
Gogi Grant (born September 20, 1924) is an American popular singer.
http://wn.com/Gogi_Grant
Gordon MacRae
Albert Gordon MacRae (March 12, 1921 – January 24, 1986) was an American actor and singer, best known for his appearances in the film versions of two Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, Oklahoma! (1955) and Carousel (1956).
http://wn.com/Gordon_MacRae
Guy Bolton
Guy Reginald Bolton (23 November 1884 – 4 September 1979) 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. Wodehouse and Fred Thompson, with whom he wrote 21 and 14 shows respectively, and the American playwright George Middleton, with whom he wrote ten shows. Among his other collaborators in Britain were George Grossmith Jr., Ian Hay and Weston and Lee. In the U.S., he worked with George and Ira Gershwin, Kalmar and Ruby and Oscar Hammerstein II.
http://wn.com/Guy_Bolton
Harold Prince
Harold Smith Prince (born January 30, 1928) is an American theatrical producer and director associated with many of the best-known Broadway musical productions of the past half-century. He has garnered twenty-one Tony Awards, more than any other individual, including eight for directing, eight for producing the year's Best Musical, two as Best Producer of a Musical, and three special awards. His shows are known for their political context, new approach to romance, and characters who sing and dance with thematic import.
http://wn.com/Harold_Prince
Hattie McDaniel
Hattie McDaniel (June 10, 1895October 25, 1952) was an American actress and the first African-American to win an Academy Award. She won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939).
http://wn.com/Hattie_McDaniel
Helen Forrest
Helen Forrest (April 12, 1917 – July 11, 1999) 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. She first sang with her brother's band at the age of 10, and later began her career singing on CBS radio under the name Bonnie Blue.
http://wn.com/Helen_Forrest
Helen Morgan
Helen Morgan (August 2, 1900 – October 9, 1941) 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. She starred as Julie LaVerne in the original Broadway production of Hammerstein and Kern's musical Show Boat in 1927 as well as in the 1932 Broadway revival of the musical, and appeared in two film adaptations, a part-talkie made in 1929 (prologue only) and a full-sound version made in 1936, becoming firmly associated with the role. She suffered from bouts of alcoholism, and despite her notable success in the title role of another Hammerstein and Kern's Broadway musical, Sweet Adeline (1929), her stage career was relatively short. Helen Morgan died of cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 41. She was portrayed by Ann Blyth in the 1957 biopic The Helen Morgan Story.
http://wn.com/Helen_Morgan
Howard Keel
Howard Keel (April 13, 1919November 7, 2004) was an American actor and singer. He starred in many film musicals of the 1950s.
http://wn.com/Howard_Keel
Howard Marsh
Howard Marsh (1888 - 1969) was a leading Broadway tenor of the 1920s. He created the role of Baron Franz Schober (not Franz Schubert) 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 Prince. Marsh also played Gaylord Ravenal in the original 1927 Broadway production of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's Show Boat. He played Ravenal only in the original production of Show Boat, not in any of the revivals, and never appeared in films or on television. Despite appearing in three musical theatre smash hits over a span of seven years, Marsh made his last appearance in a new show in 1930, The Well of Romance, opposite his Show Boat co-star, Norma Terris. After that, he appeared in major roles on Broadway in 1930's revivals of some Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. He made no recordings of the songs that he sang either in The Student Prince or Show Boat, but he did record some of those Gilbert and Sullivan selections. None of his recordings has appeared on CD as yet. Marsh was born August 16, 1888 in Bluffton, Indiana.
http://wn.com/Howard_Marsh
Inia Te Wiata
Inia Watene Tauhia Te Wiata (10 June 191526 June 1971) was a New Zealand Māori bass-baritone opera singer, film actor and carver.
http://wn.com/Inia_Te_Wiata
Irene Dunne
Irene Dunne (December 20, 1898 - September 4, 1990) was an American film actress and singer of the 1930s and 1940s. Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her performances in Cimarron (1931), Theodora Goes Wild (1936), The Awful Truth (1937), Love Affair (1939) and I Remember Mama (1948).
http://wn.com/Irene_Dunne
James Melton
James Melton (January 2, 1904 – April 21, 1961), was a popular singer in the 1920s and early 1930s who later began a career as an operatic singer when tenor voices went out of style in popular music around 1932-1935. His singing talent was similar to that of Richard Crooks, John Charles Thomas or Nelson Eddy.
http://wn.com/James_Melton
James Whale
James Whale (22 July 1889 – 29 May 1957) was an English film director, theatre director and actor. He is best remembered for his work in the horror film genre, having directed Frankenstein (1931), The Old Dark House (1932), The Invisible Man (1933) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935), all recognized as classics of the genre. Whale directed over a dozen films in other genres, including what is considered the definitive film version of the musical Show Boat (1936). He became increasingly disenchanted with his association with horror, but many of his non-horror films have fallen into obscurity.
http://wn.com/James_Whale
Jan Clayton
Jan Clayton (August 26, 1917, Tularosa, New Mexico – August 28, 1983, West Hollywood, California) was a film, musical theatre, and television actress.
http://wn.com/Jan_Clayton
Janet Pavek
Janet Pavek (12 August 1936, — 6 January 2009) was an American operatic soprano and musical theatre actress.
http://wn.com/Janet_Pavek
Jay C. Flippen
Jay C. Flippen (born March 6, 1899, Little Rock, Arkansas – February 3, 1971, Los Angeles, California) is an American gruff-faced actor who often played police officers or weary criminals in many movies of the 1940s/'50s.
http://wn.com/Jay_C_Flippen
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern (January 27, 1885 – November 11, 1945) 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 Fine Romance", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "All the Things You Are", "The Way You Look Tonight", "Long Ago (and Far Away)" and "Who?". He collaborated with many of the leading librettists and lyricists of his era, including George Grossmith Jr., Guy Bolton, P. G. Wodehouse, Otto Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II, Dorothy Fields, Johnny Mercer, Ira Gershwin and E. Y. Harburg.
http://wn.com/Jerome_Kern
Joe Bob Briggs
John Irving Bloom (born January 27, 1953), who uses the pseudonym Joe Bob Briggs, is a syndicated American film critic, writer and comic performer.
http://wn.com/Joe_Bob_Briggs
John Lahr
John Lahr (born July 12, 1941) 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.
http://wn.com/John_Lahr
John McGlinn
John Alexander McGlinn III (September 18, 1953 – February 14, 2009) 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.
http://wn.com/John_McGlinn
John Raitt
John Emmett Raitt (January 19, 1917 – February 20, 2005) was an American actor and singer best known for his performances in musical theater.
http://wn.com/John_Raitt
Joseph E. Howard
Joseph E. Howard (Feb 12, 1867 – May 19, 1961) 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 an Evening of Songs and Impressions, and Tintypes. He also wrote the music and lyrics for "Goodbye, My Lady Love", featured in the original production of Show Boat.
http://wn.com/Joseph_E_Howard
Joseph Urban
Joseph Urban (May 26, 1872 – July 10, 1933) 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.
http://wn.com/Joseph_Urban
Jules Bledsoe
Jules Bledsoe (1898 – 1943) 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.
http://wn.com/Jules_Bledsoe
Karla Burns
Karla Burns is an American operatic mezzo-soprano and actress who has performed nationally and internationally in opera houses, theatres, and on television. She is notably the first black person, African-American or otherwise, to win the Laurence Olivier Award, Britain's most prestigious award for theatre.
http://wn.com/Karla_Burns
Kathryn Grayson
Kathryn Grayson (February 9, 1922 - February 17, 2010) was an American actress and operatic soprano singer.
http://wn.com/Kathryn_Grayson
Kenneth Lee Spencer
Kenneth Lee Spencer (25 April 1913 - 26 February 1964) 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. Frusturated with the racial prejudice he experienced in the United States, Spencer moved to Germany in 1950 where he had a successful opera and concert career. He also appeared in a number of German films. His career was cut tragically short when he died in the crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 304.
http://wn.com/Kenneth_Lee_Spencer
Lehman Engel
Lehman Engel (born September 14, 1910, Jackson, Mississippi; died August 29, 1982, New York City) was an American composer and conductor of plays, television, and film. He also conducted many Broadway musicals, both on stage and on records.
http://wn.com/Lehman_Engel
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.
http://wn.com/Lena_Horne
Lonette McKee
Lonette McKee (born July 22, 1954) is an American film and television actress, music composer/producer/songwriter, screenwriter and director.
http://wn.com/Lonette_McKee
Lysette Anthony
Lysette Anthony (born on 26 September 1963) is an English film, television, and theatre actress.
http://wn.com/Lysette_Anthony
Mabel Mercer
Mabel Mercer (3 February 1900 – 20 April 1984) 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 Carlyle, the St. Regis Hotel, and eventually her own room, the Byline Club. Among those who frequently attended Mercer's shows was Frank Sinatra, who made no secret of his emulating her phrasing and story-telling techniques.
http://wn.com/Mabel_Mercer
Margaret Sullavan
Margaret Brooke Sullavan (May 16, 1909 – January 1, 1960; studio publicity incorrectly reported her year of birth as 1911) 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.
http://wn.com/Margaret_Sullavan
Mark Jacoby
Mark Jacoby (born May 21, 1947 in Johnson City, Tennessee, USA) is a Broadway performer. He has achieved fame from his leading roles in, most notably, Show Boat , The Phantom of the Opera and Ragtime.
http://wn.com/Mark_Jacoby
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney (born September 23, 1920) is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. During his career he has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award. Working as a performer since he was a small child, he was a superstar as a teenager for the films in which he played Andy Hardy, and he has had one of the longest careers of any actor.
http://wn.com/Mickey_Rooney
Neil Brand
Neil Brand (born 18 March 1958), is a British writer, composer, and a renowned silent film accompanist.
http://wn.com/Neil_Brand
Nonso Anozie
Nonso Anozie (born 1979) is a British actor who has appeared in several stage plays and four films to date.
http://wn.com/Nonso_Anozie
Norma Terris
Norma Terris (1904-1989) was an American musical theatre star. She is best known for originating the roles of Magnolia Hawks and her daughter Kim (as an adult) in the original Broadway production of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's classic 1927 musical play Show Boat, in 1927. She reprised her roles in the first New York revival of the show, in 1932. However, she was not chosen to appear in the 1929 part-talkie film, nor in the 1936 film version. Irene Dunne, who was discovered for Hollywood in the first touring company of Show Boat, would make her film debut in 1929, and go on to become one of the greatest stars of Hollywood's Golden Age. It was Dunne who eventually eclipsed Terris as Magnolia, playing the role in the 1936 film. Rather than having Miss Dunne also play the role of Kim in the movie, the producers chose musical comedy star Sunnie O'Dea for the role.
http://wn.com/Norma_Terris
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985), best known as Orson Welles, was an American filmmaker, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio. Noted for his innovative dramatic productions as well as his distinctive voice and personality, Welles is widely acknowledged as one of the most accomplished dramatic artists of the twentieth century, especially for his significant and influential early work—despite his notoriously contentious relationship with Hollywood. His distinctive directorial style featured layered, nonlinear narrative forms, innovative uses of lighting and chiaroscuro, unique camera angles, sound techniques borrowed from radio, deep focus shots, and long takes. Welles's long career in film is noted for his struggle for artistic control in the face of pressure from studios, which resulted in many of his films being severely edited and others left unreleased. He has thus been praised as a major creative force and as "the ultimate auteur."
http://wn.com/Orson_Welles
Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II (; July 12, 1895 – August 23, 1960) was an American writer, theatrical producer, and (usually uncredited) theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song", and much of his work is part of the unofficial Great American Songbook. He wrote 850 songs. Hammerstein was the lyricist and playwright in his partnerships; his collaborators wrote the music. Hammerstein collaborated with composers, including Jerome Kern, Vincent Youmans, Rudolf Friml and Sigmund Romberg, but his most famous collaboration was with Richard Rodgers.
http://wn.com/Oscar_Hammerstein_II
P. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE (15 October 1881 – 14 February 1975) () was an English writer whose body of work includes novels, collections of short stories, and musical theatre. Wodehouse enjoyed enormous popular success during a career of more than seventy years and his prolific writings continue to be widely read. Despite the political and social upheavals that occurred during his life, much of which was spent in France and the United States, Wodehouse's main canvas remained that of pre-war English upper-class society, reflecting his birth, education, and youthful writing career.
http://wn.com/P_G_Wodehouse
Patrice Munsel
Patrice Munsel (born May 14, 1925 in Spokane, Washington, USA) is an American coloratura soprano, the youngest singer who ever starred at the Metropolitan Opera, nicknamed "Princess Pat".
http://wn.com/Patrice_Munsel
Paul Robeson
Paul LeRoy Bustill Robeson (April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert singer and film actor, who became noted for his wide-ranging social justice activism. A forerunner of the civil rights movement, Robeson was also an All-American athlete, lawyer, writer, trade unionist, peace activist, Phi Beta Kappa Society laureate, and a recipient of the Spingarn Medal and Stalin Peace Prize. Robeson achieved international notoriety for both his artistic accomplishments and his outspoken radical beliefs, which largely clashed with the Jim Crow climate of the pre-civil rights United States. As a result, he became a prime target of the political right during the McCarthyist era. Despite being one of the most internationally famous cultural figures of the 20th century, persecution by the US government and media virtually erased Robeson from mainstream US culture and subsequent interpretations of US history; including civil rights and black history.
http://wn.com/Paul_Robeson
Raymond Gubbay
Raymond Gubbay (born London, 1946) 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. He now presents more than seventy performances each year at London's Royal Albert Hall and hundreds more around the UK and in Europe and Australia.
http://wn.com/Raymond_Gubbay
Rebecca Luker
Rebecca Luker (born April 17, 1961) is an American musical theatre actress and soprano who has appeared in several prominent Broadway productions.
http://wn.com/Rebecca_Luker
Richard Eyre
Sir Richard Charles Hastings Eyre CBE (born 28 March 1943) is an English director of film, theatre, television, and opera.
http://wn.com/Richard_Eyre
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) 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. His compositions have had a significant impact on popular music down to the present day, and have an enduring broad appeal.
http://wn.com/Richard_Rodgers
Rise Stevens
http://wn.com/Rise_Stevens
Robert Merrill
Robert Merrill (June 4, 1917 – October 23, 2004) was an American operatic baritone.
http://wn.com/Robert_Merrill
Robert Morse
Robert Morse (born 1931) 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 TV shows.
http://wn.com/Robert_Morse
Samantha Spiro
Samantha Spiro (born 20 June 1968 in Mill Hill, London, England) 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 .
http://wn.com/Samantha_Spiro
Sammy White (actor)
Sammy White (May 28, 1894 – March 3, 1960) 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.
http://wn.com/Sammy_White_(actor)
Shirley Bassey
Dame Shirley Veronica Bassey, DBE (born 8 January 1937 in Cardiff, Wales), is a Welsh singer who found fame in the late 1950s and has continued a successful career since then worldwide. She is best known for recording the theme songs to the James Bond films Goldfinger (1964), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), and Moonraker (1979), and is a UNESCO Artist for Peace.
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Stephen Douglass
Stephen Douglass (born September 27, 1921) is an American actor-singer.
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Teresa Stratas
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Tess Gardella
Therese "Tess" Gardella (December 19, 1894 - January 3, 1950) was an Italian American performer whose stage persona was "Aunt Jemima".
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Victor Baravalle
Victor Baravalle (1885 – 1939) 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. He also conducted the orchestra for the sound prologue in the 1929 part-talkie film of Show Boat, and for the entire 1936 film version of the show. Among the other stage musicals that he conducted was the first American production of White Horse Inn.
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Victor Young
:Not to be confused with the actor Victor Sen Yung who was sometimes billed as Victor Young
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Virginia O'Brien
'''Virginia Lee O'Brien''' (April 18, 1919 – January 16, 2001) was a popular American actress and singer known for her comedic roles in MGM musicals of the 1940s.
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William Warfield
William Caesar Warfield (22 January 1920 - 26 August 2002), was an American concert bass-baritone singer
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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 capital and port of entry. Bath is North Carolina's oldest town, celebrating its 300th anniversary in 2005. Bath is located in North Carolina's coastal plains region.
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Broadway Theatre
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Chicago
Chicago ( or ) is the largest city in the state of Illinois. With over 2.8 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous city in the country. Its metropolitan area, commonly named "Chicagoland," is the 26th most populous in the world, home to an estimated 9.7 million people spread across the U.S. states of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana. Chicago is the county seat of Cook County.
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Cleveland
Cleveland () is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately 60 miles (100 km) west of the Pennsylvania border. It was founded in 1796 near the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, and became a manufacturing center owing to its location at the head of numerous canals and railroad lines. With the decline of heavy manufacturing, Cleveland's businesses have diversified into the service economy, including the financial services, insurance, legal, and healthcare sectors, though the city's population has continued to decline. Cleveland is also home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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Connecticut
Connecticut () (state code CT) 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 New York to the west and south (because various islands of New York span Connecticut's entire coast).
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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 and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental Europe. Most of England comprises the central and southern part of the island of Great Britain in the North Atlantic. The country also includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.
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Kennedy Center
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Lincoln Center
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London
London () is the capital 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. London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its founding by the Romans, who called it Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, largely retains its square-mile mediaeval boundaries. Since at least the 19th century, the name London has also referred to the metropolis developed around this core. The bulk of this conurbation forms the London region and the Greater London administrative area, governed by the elected Mayor of London and the London Assembly.
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Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; , Spanish for "The Angels") is the second most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of California and the western United States, with a population of 3.83 million within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Los Angeles extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of over 14.8 million and it is the 14th largest urban area in the world, affording it megacity status. The metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is home to nearly 12.9 million residents while the broader Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside combined statistical area (CSA) contains nearly 17.8 million people. Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated and one of the most multicultural counties in the United States. The city's inhabitants are referred to as "Angelenos" ().
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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. The local authority is Middlesbrough Borough Council.
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Millburn, New Jersey
Millburn is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the township population was 19,765.
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Natchez, Mississippi
Natchez is the county seat of, and the largest and only incorporated city within, Adams County, Mississippi, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 18,464. One of Mississippi's oldest European-American cities, it was founded by French colonists in 1716, antedating the capital of Jackson by more than a century. Located along the Mississippi River, Natchez is the southern terminus of the Natchez Trace Parkway. The city is famous in American history for its role in the development of the Old Southwest, particularly with respect to its location on the Mississippi River.
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opera
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Paper Mill Playhouse
Paper Mill Playhouse is a regional theatre with approximately 1200 seats, located in Millburn, New Jersey, less than 25 miles away from Manhattan. Due to its location, it can draw from the pool of actors (and audience members) who live in New York City. Its location, as well as its focus on producing large-scale shows, essentially makes Paper Mill a Broadway theatre thirty minutes from Broadway. Paper Mill was officially designated as the "State Theatre of New Jersey". Paper Mill also has New Jersey Ballet as its resident ballet company with the annual production of Nutcracker since 1971. Mark W. Jones currently serves as the Theater Executive Director, while Mark S. Hoebee is the Artistic Director.
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Philadelphia
Philadelphia () is the largest city in Pennsylvania, sixth-most-populous city in the United States and the fifty-first most populous city in the world.
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Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh () is the second-largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it anchors the 22nd largest urban area in the United States. The estimated population of the city in 2009 was 311,647, while the seven-county metropolitan area was estimated at 2,354,957. Downtown Pittsburgh retains substantial economic influence, ranking at 25th in the nation for jobs within the urban core and 6th in job density. The characteristic shape of Pittsburgh's central business district is a triangular tract carved by the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, where the Ohio River forms. The city features 151 high-rise buildings, 446 bridges, two inclined railways, and a pre-revolutionary fortification. Pittsburgh is known colloquially as "The City of Bridges" and "The Steel City" for its many bridges and former steel manufacturing base.
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Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is an arts venue situated in the Knightsbridge area of the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941.
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Toronto, Ontario
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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, founded on July 16, 1790. Article One of the United States Constitution provides for a federal district, distinct from the states, to serve as the permanent national capital. The City of Washington was originally a separate municipality within the federal territory until an act of Congress in 1871 established a single, unified municipal government for the whole District. It is for this reason that the city, while legally named the District of Columbia, is known as Washington, D.C. The city shares its name with the U.S. state of Washington, which is located on the country's Pacific coast.
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West 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 world. Seeing a West End show is a common tourist activity in London.
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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.
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photo: AP / Jacques Brinon

Boating enthusiasts look at yachts at the 47th Paris Boat Show

photo: Creative Commons / Ronhjones

Crick Boat Show Grand Union Canal passes near Crick, and the village is well known for its canal marina and the annual Crick Boat Show at Crick.

photo: Creative Commons / Elmschrat

Fort Lauderdale, Florida boating industry .

photo: WN / azza

A show boat . Egypt , Cairo , 14th November , 2008

photo: Public Domain / Suzukitoyoki

Boat Show 2009 floating place

photo: Creative Commons / Guy Jaques

Kelly Brook at the January 2009 London Boat Show.

photo: US Coastguard / Joseph P. Cirone, USCGAUX

WASHINGTON, DC (Feb. 13, 2005) U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliarists Dave Flaherty (l) of College Park, MD Flotilla 24 and Frank Steinert (r) of Manassas, VA (Flotilla 29), provide boating safety information and answers to questions for attendees at the 44th Annual Washington (DC) Boat Show, which was held February 9 13, 2005. USCG Photo by Joseph P. Cirone, USCGAUX (99609) ( Washington (DC) Boat Show )

photo: AP / Randall Hyman

This undated photo released by the Icelandic Tourist Board shows fishing boats in the Westfjords of Iceland.

photo: Creative Commons / Susan Lesch

Draft horses the fairgrounds is heavily used during the off-season (non-fair time) for non-profit and commercial events.

photo: Creative Commons / Susan Lesch

The Giant Slide the fairgrounds is heavily used during the off-season (non-fair time) for non-profit and commercial events.

photo: Creative Commons / Arun Sinha

Kerala boatrace /ntf1

photo: AP Photo / Press TV via AP Television

A small Iranian craft is seen in the foreground with what purportedly shows U.S. naval ships in the background in this image taken from TV Thursday Jan. 10, 2008. Iranian state TV aired video Thursday purporting to show a weekend standoff between small Iranian boats and U.S. naval ships in the Persian Gulf/ The grainy 5-minute, 20-second video without sound or narration showed a man speaking into a handheld radio, with three U.S. ships floating in the distance. It appeared to be shot from a smal

photo: US Coastguard / PA1 Paul Roszkowski

CHICAGO, Ill. (Aug. 17, 2003)--Petty Officer 3rd Class Jon Lowman, a reserve boatswains mate from Coast Guard Station Wilmette Harbor, Ill., runs a boat operator through a field sobriety test as part of a boating safety boarding during the Chicago Air and Water Show here. USCG photo by PA1 Paul Roszkowski (91743) ( CHICAGO AIR AND WATER SHOW (FOR RELEASE) )

photo: Creative Commons / Mwanner

Closeup of the second boathouse at Camp Topridge, showing the boats.Post left the property to the State of New York

photo: Creative Commons / Anthony Appleyard

South port inshore rescue boat on trailer showing special tractor which steers with an articulated front end, which is somewhat wedge-shaped to push obstructions aside

photo: US Coastguard / Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Lindberg.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - Members of Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 8-1 in Ocean City, N.J, talk to attendees at the 32nd annual Atlantic City Boat Show in Atlantic City about the importance of boating safety Feb. 3, 2011. Coast Guard Station Atlantic City and the Coast Guard Auxiliary had members present to answer the public's questions about the Coast Guard. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Lindberg. (1106691) ( Atlantic City Boat Show )

photo: Creative Commons

sailing boats, the exhibition area comprises both on land and in water shows, with 100,000 square meters of water basin surface and more than 200,000 square meters of pavilions and outdoor areas.

photo: WN / Renzelle Mae Abasolo

A spanish designed boat motorcade used in located in running shows during events night in Intramuros , Manila City , Philippines , December 12 , 2008.

photo: Creative Commons / Susan Lesch

Machinery Hill, Minnesota State Fair, Falcon Heights, Minnesota Skyglider. The fairgrounds is heavily used during the off-season (non-fair time) for non-profit and commercial events.

photo: Creative Commons / John

Mountain Jefferson behind Detroit Lake in Oregon, showing a perfect example of Lenticular Clouds

photo: Creative Commons

Aerial view of Pavilion B. Owing the popularity of nautical tourism along the Italian Riviera, as well as Genoa's history as a city for the ship and yacht building industry, the 1st International Boat Show was opened by Senator De Gregorio, Undersecretary to the Treasury, on 27 January 1962.

photo: Creative Commons / Susan Lesch

Fine Arts and 4H buildings, Minnesota State Fair, Falcon Heights, Minnesota. The fairgrounds is heavily used during the off-season (non-fair time) for non-profit and commercial events.

photo: US Coastguard / Joseph P. Cirone

MARLBOROUGH POINT, VA (April 21, 2007) Scott Croft of Washington DC (right), a Boat/US employee, shows Boat/US President and U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Honorary Commodore, Richard Schwartz (left), two styles of Boat/US personal flotation devices he brought aboard Schwartzs 34-foot pontoon boat, Bard II. U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Vessel Examiners conducted a Vessel Safety Check aboard the vessel and found everything shipshape. USCGAUX Photo by Joseph P. Cirone (122450) ( AUXILIARY VESSEL SAFETY

photo: AP / U.S. Coast Guard, HO

In this photo released by the U.S. Coast Guard, shows former University of South Florida football player Nick Schuyler clinging to the engine of an overturned boat in the Gulf of Mexico Monday March 2, 2009. Schuyler, Marquis Cooper, William Buckley and Corey Smith left Clearwater

photo: Public domain photo

Boat show-boats

photo: Creative Commons / Danrok

boat

photo: AP

Mexican army sailors show to the press five men that were detained at sea on a boat with cocaine in the Navy port of Salina Cruz, Mexico Monday Feb. 16, 2009. The Mexican navy says it has seized 7.7 tons (7 metric tons) of cocaine from an unspecified kind of boat and detained five Mexican citizens onboard. (AP Photo)

photo: Creative Commons

47 international boat exhibition, Genoa, Italy. The exhibition area comprises both on land and in water shows, with 100,000 square meters of water basin surface and more than 200,000 square meters of pavilions and outdoor areas.

photo: US Navy / Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Barry Hirayama

Command Master Chief Jim Lyle, chief-of-the-boat for the Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Pasadena (SSN 752), shows Olongapo city officials how submarines navigate when submerged during a boat tour

photo: Creative Commons / LSelander

Fishing in Lake Poopó is low scale and is carried out using rowing boats and small nets. The image shows boats owned by fishermen from the village of Llapallapani

< >

Show Boat

Name	Show Boat
Boxwidth	21em
Caption	Original 1927 Sheet Music for Ol' Man River, from Show Boat
Music	Jerome Kern
Lyrics	Oscar Hammerstein II
Book	Oscar Hammerstein II
Basis	Edna Ferber's 1926novel Show Boat
Productions	1927 Broadway 1929 Film 1932 Broadway revival 1936 Film 1946 Broadway revival 1951 Film 1966 Lincoln Center revival 1983 Broadway revival 1994 Broadway revival
Awards	Tony Award for Best Revival Olivier Award for Best Revival

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. It 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 operettas, light musical comedies of the 1890s and early 20th century, and the "Follies"-type musical revues that had defined Broadway. 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 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.

Background

In doing research for her proposed novel Show Boat, 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..."

Synopsis

Note: There is no definitive version of the libretto of Show Boat, although the 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. 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. Joe and the other dock workers reflect on the wisdom of "Ol' Man River".

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. 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 and his wife'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".

: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 River – Joe and Stevedores

Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man – 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

Bill (Lyrics by P. G. Wodehouse 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. Howard) – Frank and Ellie

After the Ball (from A Trip to Chinatown; music and lyrics by Charles K. Harris) – 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' Round" 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)

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' Round", 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 Bennett, 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 Believe" –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 olio by Irene Dunne (as Magnolia) in blackface. It was cut from the 1989 PBS Paper Mill Playhouse 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, 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 for the characters Joe and Queenie (Paul Robeson and Hattie McDaniel). The number was also included in the 1989 Paper Mill Playhouse production.

A new overture was composed for the 1946 Broadway revival by Robert Russell Bennett, composed of themes from the show's major songs.

"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.

Production history

Original 1927 production

Before the New York premiere of Show Boat, Ziegfeld previewed 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".

Paul Robeson

The character Joe, the stevedore 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."

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 Dunne 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 Boat's 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. 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.

London productions

Show Boat has been seen on multiple occasions in London's West End. 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

Campbell Playhouse (CBS 1939). Directed and introduced by Orson Welles. 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 Morgan repeated her portrayal of Julie, here singing one song not from the musical. Orson 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, 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 Theater (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.

Radio Hall of Fame (1944). This production featured Kathryn Grayson, playing Magnolia for the first time.

Selected Recordings

1928 original London 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 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. Robeson did record "Ol' Man River" at the time, however, and 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 78rpm by Brunswick Records. Later re-released by Columbia Records on 78rpm, 33-1/3rpm 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.

1946 Broadway revival cast recording. Issued on 78rpm, 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 Colette Lyons were featured. 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 45rpm and 33-1/3rpm, later on CD in a much expanded edition. Actress Ava Gardner, 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 Engel. This album featured more of the score on one LP than had been previously recorded. It featured a white singer, famed American baritone Robert Merrill, as both Joe and Gaylord Ravenal. Other singers included Patrice Munsel as Magnolia and Rise Stevens as Julie. Issued on CD in 2009, but omitting Frank and Ellie's numbers, which had been sung on the LP version by Janet Pavek 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 Jeffreys, and Gogi Grant. It was issued on CD in 2010.

1959 EMI British studio cast album. It featured Marlys Walters as Magnolia, Don McKay as Ravenal, Shirley Bassey, who was later to become famous for singing the title song in Goldfinger, as Julie, Dora Bryan as Ellie, and Inia Te Wiata singing "Ol' Man River".

1962 Columbia studio cast album. Starring Barbara Cook, John Raitt, Anita Darian and William Warfield, this was the first "Show Boat" recording issued on CD.

1966 Lincoln Center cast album. Issued by RCA Victor, it featured Cook, Constance Towers, Stephen Douglass, and William Warfield. Also available on CD .

1971 London revival cast album. Jazz singer Cleo Laine, soprano Lorna Dallas, tenor Andre Jobin, and bass-baritone Thomas Carey were the leads. This was the first 2-LP album of Show Boat. It included more of the score than had been previously put on records, although with completely different orchestral arrangements. 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 Stade, Jerry Hadley, Teresa Stratas, Karla Burns, and Bruce Hubbard. The album is conducted by John McGlinn.

1993 Toronto revival cast recording. Starring Rebecca Luker, Mark Jacoby, Lonette McKee, Robert Morse, 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.

Racial depictions controversy

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 allowed solo African American performers like Bert Williams, but would never have had an 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.

Language and stereotypes

The show has been the frequent object of controversy, primarily because of the use of the word niggers 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 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 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.

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:

::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! 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 _

_The_theatre_critics_and_veterans_[[Richard_Eyre" title="spiritual."

The theatre critics and veterans [[Richard Eyre">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:

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 anthem 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 Connecticut) 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."

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." 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,

[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 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". 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.

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:

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. 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

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 Tribune 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 assimilation 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 continued 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."

Notes

References

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

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

Kantor, Michael and Maslon, Laurence. Broadway: The American Musical, New York:Bullfinch Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8212-2905-2

Grams, Martin. The History of the Cavalcade of America: Sponsored by DuPont. (Morris Publishing, 1999). ISBN 0-7392-0138-7

External links

Information about the musical

PBS.org info about Show Boat

Scena.org analysis of the show

History of the show

Show Boat images

Post-Gazette information and timeline for Show Boat

Detailed list of major productions Ovrtur.com

Category:1927 musicals Category:Broadway musicals Category:Musicals by Jerome Kern Category:American musical films Category:Musicals based on novels Category:Tony Award winning musicals

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