The Evolution and

Importance of Show
Boat

Before Show Boat

Primary forms of entertainment:

Vaudeville
Revues
Light musical comedies

All of these made a mark on the identity of

American entertainment, providing hit songs
and talented artists
Notable examples
Ziegfelds Follies
Al Jolsons minstrel shows

Before Showboat

What these forms of entertainment lacked was a

central story or the meaningful integration of the
various art forms
Usually, a producer would have a star or group of
stars whose talents were supposed to be
highlighted in a light, fun show
Stories would normally involve common tropes
Boy meets girl, falls in love
Villain meets his end
Beautiful chorus girls in large extravagant musical
numbers

Ziegfelds Follies often involved large numbers with extravagantly dressed

chorus girls and lavish sets.

Before Show Boat

A few efforts were made to break out of the

mold
The Princess Theatre Shows in the 1920s
focused on providing more intimate, informal
entertainment with small casts and no big stars
Musicals tapped into more innovative material
like dream psychology, American history, and
American literature
The most successful and influential of these efforts
was the musical play Show Boat

The novel

Show Boat was originally a

book by Edna Ferber
She spent weeks on the James
Adams Floating Palace Theater
in Bath, NC to research the
disappearing entertainment
venue of the river showboat
The book became a best-seller
Jerome Kern approached Ferber
with the hope of adapting it as
a musical

Turning it into a Musical

Jerome Kern teamed up with lyricist Oscar

Hammerstein II to set the novel to music
They auditioned the material for producer
Florenz Ziegfeld, who remarked
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

Turning it into a
Musical

Jerome Kern, music

Oscar
Hammerstein II,
lyrics

Florenz Ziegfeld,
producer

Turning it into a
Musical

Unlike most other shows at the time, Show

Boat took over a year to make, evident by the
dates of the typescripts
The music was written to complement the
characters situation within the story
Most famous songs: Ol Man River, Cant
Help Lovin Dat Man
Started a new genre that would come to be
known as the book musical

Major Themes

Adapting a story from a novel meant that the

musical dealt with large issues through
complex characters and a strong plot
Themes dealt with in Show Boat:
Interracial marriage
Complications in marriage
Racial tensions (Show Boat was actually the
first racially integrated musical)

Ol Man River

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh9WayN7
R-s
This song reflects on the wisdom of the great
river, which just keeps rollin along no
matter what troubles it or the people around it
experience
It also reflects on the hardships that blacks
endured during this time

Cant Help Lovin Dat

Man

(1936)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
Y5owzfuvE2k
(1994)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdkWyH7q
GdE
The mulatto woman sings this in response to
Magnolia saying she can unlove the man she
likes if she wants. It is normally sung by the
blacks in the community, reflecting their
culture.

Run & Reception

Ziegfeld previewed the production in a tour

before showing it on the Broadway stage at
his own Ziegfeld Theatre
It opened on Broadway on December 27, 1927
It was a success and ran for 572 performances
New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson called
the production one of unimpeachable skill
and taste

1994 Hal Prince

Revival

Show Boat has been revived many times and

won many awards
Hal Prince particularly wanted to bring attention
to the racial disparities that the show portrays
The black actors were seen in front of the
audience cleaning up messes, appearing to move
the sets, and doing menial jobs
Modern technology was used to enhance the show
and make the scene changes more fluid

There was a revolving door that rotated to indicate a

time period of almost five decades passing

Hal Princes 1993 revival of Show Boat made use of better technology and
techniques to give new life to the story. It proved that this story is just as
poignant as it was in the 1920s.

The Future of the

Musical

Once the book musical was proven to be a

successful and meaningful method to
entertainment, others followed suit
Show Boat allowed a musical like Oklahoma!,
which also had lyrics by Hammerstein, to take
the country by storm and usher American
musical theatre into its Golden Age

Sources

http://www.nypl.org/blog/2014/07/08/musical-month-sh
owboat
http://www.theatrehistory.com/american/musical030.
html
http://broadwayscene.com/broadway-history-the-golden
-age-of-the-american-book-musical-part-3-show
/
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG97/showboat/
sbreview.html
http://www.broadwaymusicalhome.com/shows/
showboat.htm