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88-569: A showboat or show boat, is a boat which serves as a floating theater. Showboat , Show Boat or Showboats may also refer to: Showboat During the American frontier era, populations of potential audiences were widely scattered about the area that is now the United States. Actors traveled to America from England, and theatre venues as well as touring companies were developed. Noah Ludlow , an early pioneer in travelling theater, purchased

176-530: A keelboat in 1816 for $ 200 and named it Noah's Ark . Ludlow and 11 associates, together known as the American Theatrical Commonwealth Company, climbed aboard and traveled down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, stopping to perform whenever they could. It is not clear whether they ever performed on the boat, or just used the boat as a means of travel. If they did, in fact, perform on the boat (as

264-576: A 1933 West Coast production, joined by tenor Allan Jones as Ravenal. Show Boat was revived by Ziegfeld on Broadway in 1932 at the Casino Theatre with most of the original cast, but with Paul Robeson as Joe and Dennis King as Ravenal. In 1946, a major new Broadway revival was produced by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II at the show's original home, the Ziegfeld Theatre. The 1946 revival featured

352-430: 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 Show Boat was recognized immediately by critics, and it is frequently revived. Awards did not exist for Broadway shows in 1927, when

440-404: 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, Ravenal abandons Magnolia and Kim, but first visits his daughter at the convent where she goes to school to say goodbye before leaving her forever ("Make Believe" (reprise)). Frank and Ellie, two former actors from the showboat, learn that Magnolia

528-450: A first-place finish and a gold medal (she got a silver medal instead); Usain Bolt pumping his chest before winning the 100m final at 2008 Summer Olympics , likely adding one or more tenths of a second to his world record time of 9.69 seconds; and Mario Balotelli missing a shot on (soccer) goal when he unnecessarily tried it backheel. Showboating is likely to get this sort of attention when, as

616-462: A historically accurate vessel, and Edna Ferber's novel on which the musical is based gives a description of the Cotton Blossom that accurately reflects the design of a nineteenth-century showboat. Based on the supposedly gaudy look of showboats, the term "showboat" became slang for someone who wants ostentatious behavior to be seen at all costs. This term is particularly applied in sports, where

704-427: A hit with the crowds and have fallen in love. As the levee workers hum "Ol' Man River" in the background, he proposes to Magnolia, and she accepts. The couple joyously sings " You Are Love ". They make plans to marry the next day while Parthy, who disapproves, is out of town. Parthy has discovered that Ravenal once killed a man and arrives with the sheriff to interrupt the wedding festivities. The group learns that Ravenal

792-459: A peck of fresh vegetables to 50 cents a person. After reaching New Orleans, they got rid of the boat and went back to Pittsburgh in a steamboat in order to tour down the river once again the following year. In 1836, the family was able to afford a new, fully equipped steam engine with a stage. In 1837, it was renamed Steamboat Theatre . Many other showboats followed the Floating Theater onto

880-506: A piece that would sufficiently fill the Ziegfeld mold before approaching the producer. To make Show Boat fit the Ziegfeld brand, the pair transformed the novel into a romance, fundamentally changing Ferber's tale of three generations of women in a family, Parthy, Magnolia, and Kim. Kern and Hammerstein eliminated much of Parthy and Captain Andy's story, including Captain Andy's death, both to lighten

968-424: A result, the contestant doing it encounters a problem in the still-in-progress competition. In boxing, showboating often takes the form of taunting, dropping one's gloves and daring an opponent to throw a punch, or engaging in other risky behaviors while the match is ongoing. Boxers well known for showboating style include Muhammad Ali , Sugar Ray Leonard , Roy Jones Jr. , and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Anderson Silva

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1056-460: A revised score and new song by Kern and Hammerstein, and a new overture and orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett. The show was directed by Hammerstein and Hassard Short and featured Jan Clayton (Magnolia), Charles Fredricks (Ravenal), Carol Bruce (Julie), Kenneth Spencer (Joe), Helen Dowdy (Queenie), and Buddy Ebsen (Frank). Kern died just weeks before the January 5, 1946 opening, making it

1144-427: A showboat (or sometimes "showboater") will do something flashy before (or even instead of) actually achieving his or her goal. The word is also used as a verb. British television show Soccer AM has a section named "Showboat", dedicated to flashy tricks from the past week's games. Examples of showboating include Leon Lett 's grocery-bag-carrying of a recovered football (which was then swatted out of his hand before

1232-441: A taste of her performing abilities by singing an updated, Charleston version of "Why Do I Love You?" Ravenal sings a reprise of "You Are Love" to the offstage Magnolia. Although he is 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". The 1951 MGM film changed

1320-457: 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." 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

1408-482: A way that was not done in Ferber's novel. Julie's song " Bill " became a "musical and emotional high point" in the production. Upon hearing Act I of Show Boat , 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". Though Ziegfeld planned to stage

1496-663: A year and a half, for a total of 572 performances. The production's direction was credited to Zeke Colvan at the time it premiered, but Oscar Hammerstein II, who remained uncredited, was also responsible for much of the show's staging. Choreography for the show was by Sammy Lee. The original cast included Norma Terris as Magnolia Hawks and her daughter Kim (as an adult), Howard Marsh as Gaylord Ravenal, Helen Morgan as Julie LaVerne, Jules Bledsoe as Joe, Charles Winninger as Cap'n Andy Hawks, Edna May Oliver as Parthy Hawks, Sammy White as Frank Schultz, Eva Puck as Ellie May Chipley, and Tess Gardella as Queenie. The orchestrator

1584-598: Is a UFC fighter. Showboat (musical) Show Boat is a musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II . It is based on Edna Ferber 's best-selling 1926 novel of the same name . The musical follows the lives of the performers, stagehands and dock workers on the Cotton Blossom , a Mississippi River show boat , over 40 years from 1887 to 1927. Its themes include racial prejudice and tragic, enduring love. The musical contributed such classic songs as " Ol' Man River ", " Make Believe ", and " Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man ". The musical

1672-492: Is a confident woman who, with pluck and determination, succeeds in business without the help of a man. While the character marries, it is a failed marriage, and she rises above the weaknesses of her romantic partner who leaves her through tragic circumstances. Magnolia's domineering mother Parthy was based on Ferber's own mother, Julia Ferber, and Parthy and Captain Andy's marriage was modeled on her own parents' marriage. Show Boat departed from Ferber's earlier writings in that it

1760-442: Is described as a white woman gifted with the singing voice of a black vocalist. Musicologist Todd Decker stated, "Magnolia's embrace of show business as a means to survive as a single mother is directly linked to Ferber's use of black music to characterize her heroine. Magnolia's black voice thus proves a defining aspect of Ferber's main character and a central pillar of the novel's structure and larger themes. Magnolia's story and

1848-494: Is in love. Julie cautions her that this stranger could be just a "no-account river feller". Magnolia says that if she found out he was "no-account", she would stop loving him. Julie warns her that it is not that easy to stop loving someone, explaining that she will always love Steve and singing a few lines of " Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man ". Queenie overhears – she is surprised that Julie knows that song as she has only heard "colored folks" sing it. Magnolia remarks that Julie sings it all

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1936-512: 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. She has fallen into drinking after being abandoned by Steve. At a rehearsal, she tries out the new song " Bill ". She appears to be thinking of Steve and sings it with great emotion. From her dressing room, she hears Magnolia singing "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" for her audition,

2024-466: Is probable), then Ludlow's Noah's Ark would have been the first showboat. British-born actor William Chapman, Sr. created the first deliberately-planned showboat, named the Floating Theater in Pittsburgh in 1831. He and his family of nine, along with two other people, lived on this boat and performed plays with added music and dance at stops along the waterways. The price of admission was anywhere from

2112-650: The James Adams Floating Theatre , a showboat that would tour the Chesapeake Bay and bring theatre to audiences in Maryland , Virginia , and North Carolina . In the process of writing her 1926 novel Show Boat , Edna Ferber stayed on board the James Adams Floating Theatre to gather research material on the showboat, a disappearing American pastime. This novel served as the inspiration for

2200-581: The George Gershwin Theatre on October 2, 1994, and continued for 947 performances making it Broadway's longest-running Show Boat to date. It starred most of the Toronto cast, but with John McMartin as Cap'n Andy. Robert Morse remained in the Toronto cast and was joined by Cloris Leachman as Parthy, Patti Cohenour as Magnolia, Hugh Panaro as Ravenal, and Valerie Pettiford as Julie. The production departed from previous iterations by tightening

2288-776: The Gershwin Theatre on Broadway in 1983. The production also toured overseas to the Cairo Opera House in Egypt. The show was produced by Robert A. Buckley and Douglas Urbanski . Mickey Rooney portrayed Cap'n Andy for portions of the tour, but Donald O'Connor took over the role on Broadway. Lonette McKee (Julie) and Karla Burns (Queenie), and director Michael Kahn all received Tony Award nominations for their work. Other cast members included Ron Raines (Gaylord Ravenal), Sheryl Woods (Magnolia), Avril Gentles (Parthy), Bruce Hubbard (Joe), and Paige O'Hara (Ellie). In 1989,

2376-524: The Paper Mill Playhouse of Millburn, New Jersey , mounted a production which was noted for its intention to restore the show in accordance with the creators' original intentions. The production restored part of the original 1927 overture and one number discarded from the show after the Broadway opening, as well as the song Ah Still Suits Me , written by Kern and Hammerstein for the 1936 film version. It

2464-635: The Prince Edward Theatre in 1998, and was nominated for the Olivier Award, Outstanding Musical Production (1999). Other notable revivals in England have included the joint Opera North / Royal Shakespeare Company production of 1989, which ran at the London Palladium in 1990, and the 2006 production directed by Francesca Zambello , presented by Raymond Gubbay at London's Royal Albert Hall . It

2552-697: The burlesquing of these programs throughout the 1930s to attract sophisticated audiences, showboats ceased to perform their original function. The last showboat to travel the rivers in authentic pattern was the Golden Rod in 1943. The glory days of showboats are recalled by the Majestic , which is docked on the Ohio River in Downtown Cincinnati . Until 2013, she served as a venue for regular performances. In 1914, circus actors James Adams and his wife launched

2640-622: The 1936 film, was added to the production. Two new mime and dance "Montages" in Act 2 depicted the passage of time through changing styles of dance and music. The production went on tour, playing at the Kennedy Center, and it was staged in London (1998) and Melbourne, Australia. The original London West End production of Show Boat opened May 3, 1928, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and featured among

2728-665: The Ball " by Charles K. Harris , were included by the authors for historical atmosphere and are included in revivals. The New Year's Eve scene features an instrumental version of " There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight ". Some of the following numbers have been cut or revised in subsequent productions, as noted below (the songs "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", and " Bill " have been included in every stage and film production of Show Boat ): Additional numbers sometimes included in films and revivals: Ziegfeld previewed

Showboat (disambiguation) - Misplaced Pages Continue

2816-548: The Broadway stage. Ferber was finally won over by Kern and Hammersteins' assurance that the musical would not emulate the typical "frivolous 'girlie show'" of the musical stage. On November 17, 1926, she signed a contract giving the creative duo the musical-dramatic rights to her novel. Kern and Hammerstein had mostly completed Act I of Show Boat prior to presenting their idea to Ziegfeld on November 25, 1926. They sold their idea to him partly by building material around specific talent, such as hiring vaudeville performers into

2904-531: The Washington, D.C., tryout. "Let's Start the New Year" was performed in the 1989 Paper Mill Playhouse production. Two songs, "Till Good Luck Comes My Way" (sung by Ravenal) and "Hey Feller!" (sung by Queenie), were written mainly to cover scenery changes. They were discarded beginning with the 1946 revival, although "Till Good Luck" was included in the 1994 Prince revival. The comedy song, "I Might Fall Back on You,"

2992-658: The Ziegfeld Theatre in February 1927 with Rio Rita , a musical by Kern's frequent collaborator Guy Bolton . When Rio Rita proved to be a success, Show Boat ' s Broadway opening was delayed until Rita could be moved to another theatre. In 1887, the show boat Cotton Blossom arrives at the river dock in Natchez, Mississippi . The Reconstruction era had ended a decade earlier, and white-dominated Southern legislatures have imposed racial segregation and Jim Crow rules. The boat's owner, Cap'n Andy Hawks, introduces his actors to

3080-528: The actor most identified with the role and the song, he was unavailable for the original production due to its opening delay. Jules Bledsoe premiered the part. Robeson played Joe in four notable productions of Show Boat : the 1928 London premiere production, the 1932 Broadway revival, the 1936 film version and a 1940 stage revival in Los Angeles . Reviewing the 1932 Broadway revival, the critic Brooks Atkinson described Robeson's performance: "Mr. Robeson has

3168-515: The author received offers for film adaptations after the first two installments of the novel were published in WHC . It became a best-selling novel. It centers on Magnolia, the daughter of the owners of a showboat , Cotton Blossom , Captain Andy Hawks and his wife, Parthy. Musically gifted as a child, she learns from the ship's performers and from the Cotton Blossom' s black cook Queenie and her husband,

3256-522: The award-winning Kern and Hammerstein Broadway hit, Show Boat (1927). Since the box-office success of MGM 's 1951 motion picture version of the musical Show Boat , in which the boat was inaccurately redesigned as a deluxe, self-propelled steamboat , the image of a showboat as a large twin-stacked vessel with a huge paddle wheel at the rear has taken hold in popular culture. Two earlier film versions of Show Boat and most stage productions feature

3344-495: The beginning they were determined to attract Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. as a backing producer, as they felt only he could mount a production large enough in scale to successfully portray Ferber's story. They were aware that Show Boat , with its serious and dramatic nature, was an unusual choice for Ziegfeld, who was best known for revues featuring romantic comedy, such as the Ziegfeld Follies . Kern and Hammerstein worked to craft

3432-468: The book, dropping or adding songs used in or cut from various productions, and highlighting its racial elements. Prince transformed "Why Do I Love You?" from a duet between Magnolia and Ravenal to a lullaby sung by Parthy to Magnolia's baby girl, and then reprised as an up-tempo production number finale. The love duet for Magnolia and Ravenal, "I Have the Room Above Her", written by Kern and Hammerstein for

3520-490: The cast, Cedric Hardwicke as Capt. Andy, Edith Day as Magnolia, Paul Robeson as Joe, and Alberta Hunter as Queenie. Mabel Mercer , later famed as a cabaret singer, was in the chorus. Other West End presentations include a 1971 production at the Adelphi Theatre , which ran for 909 performances. Derek Royle was Cap'n Andy, Cleo Laine was Julie, and Pearl Hackney played Parthy Ann. The Hal Prince production ran at

3608-615: The character Joe (spelled Jo in the novel). They shifted the novel's use of the Mississippi River as a metaphor for Magnolia's resilience to Joe through the hit song " Ol' Man River " to represent the resilience of the African-American laborer surviving in a racist society. The torch singer Helen Morgan was another star who Kern and Hammerstein envisioned from the beginning for the role of Julie. Knowing that Morgan's popularity as nightclub singer would draw in crowds, they increased

Showboat (disambiguation) - Misplaced Pages Continue

3696-507: The critic Alexander Woollcott , during the intermission of Kern's newest musical Criss Cross . Ferber was shocked by the proposal, concerned that the work was not suitable for the musical genre. She felt the work's 50-year time span, and her treatment of topics like spousal desertion, alcoholism, and miscegenation did not fit the frivolous, light-hearted mold of popular musicals. She also knew that racially integrated casts of black and white actors and singers had never been attempted before on

3784-437: The crowd on the levee. A fistfight breaks out between Steve Baker, the leading man of the troupe, and Pete, a rough engineer who had been making passes at Steve's wife, the leading lady Julie La Verne . Steve knocks Pete down, and Pete swears revenge, suggesting he knows a dark secret about Julie. Cap'n Andy pretends to the shocked crowd that the fight was a preview of one of the melodramas to be performed. The troupe exits with

3872-411: The dock worker Jo. Despite her mother's opposition, Magnolia becomes an actress and singer on the boat's stage. She falls in love with her co-star, gambler Gaylord Ravenal; they marry and have a child. Ravenal's gambling addiction and huge debts, philandering with prostitutes, and ill health lead him to abandon his family. Magnolia manages to move on and thrive because of her prodigious singing talent; she

3960-533: The final scenes of the story, as well as many small details. It reconciles Ravenal and Magnolia a few years after they separate, rather than 23 years later. When Ravenal leaves Magnolia in Chicago, he does not know that she is pregnant. Through a chance meeting with Julie, he learns that Magnolia and his daughter are living on the Cotton Blossom. He goes to where the boat is docked and sees Kim playing. He talks with her;

4048-544: The goal line) in Super Bowl XXVII ; Bill Shoemaker 's standing in the saddle before the finish line of the 1957 Kentucky Derby , costing him the win (some sources say he merely misjudged the finish line, with the jockey ahead of him not standing up then); Lindsey Jacobellis ' grab of her snowboard which caused her to crash right before the finish of the Snowboard Cross final at the 2006 Winter Olympics , costing her

4136-532: The improvement of roads, the rise of the automobile, motion pictures, and the maturation of the river culture, the popularity of showboats again began to decline. In order to combat this development, they grew in size and became more colorful and elaborately designed in the 1900s. The Golden Rod seated 1,400 persons; the Cotton Blossom , the Sunny South , and the New Showboat were floating theatre palaces. With

4224-462: The increasing popularity in the 1920s of black singers performing spirituals on the concert stage in America. Influenced by the writings of ethnomusicologist Natalie Curtis , Ferber uses the theme of African-American music as a means of criticizing the state of contemporary white American theatre. At the end of the novel, Magnolia watches her daughter Kim study to become a singer and actress; only to have

4312-463: The last show he worked on. The production ran for 418 performances and then toured extensively. Its cost was reportedly $ 300,000, and a month before the Broadway closing, it was reported as still $ 130,000 from breaking even. Additional New York revivals were produced in 1948 and 1954 at the New York City Center with the 1948 production starred Billy House as Cap'n Andy. The 1954 production

4400-412: The law for them. Ravenal returns and asks for passage on the boat. Andy hires him as the new leading man and assigns his daughter Magnolia as the new leading lady, over her mother's objections. As Magnolia and Ravenal begin to rehearse their roles and in the process, kiss for the first time (infuriating Parthy), Joe reprises the last few lines of "Ol' Man River". Weeks later, Magnolia and Ravenal have been

4488-412: The life and soul of her talents driven out of her by the white music and theatre education system. Ferber implies that music from black culture is more authentic, intuitive, and superior in quality than white musical culture that is restrained by education. Decker wrote: "In Show Boat , Ferber used a racial argument about the sources of musical inspiration and authentic voice to support her thesis about

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4576-412: The musical stage. After the 1925 success of the musical Sunny in collaboration with Hammerstein, Kern sought a new Broadway project for the pair. By late 1926 he was determined to make Ferber's novel the subject of their next musical. Hammerstein agreed, and the pair began writing material even before obtaining permission from Ferber to use her work or having a producer attached to the project. From

4664-591: The onset of the American Civil War , but began again in 1878. Upon their revival, they tended to focus on melodrama and vaudeville . Major boats of this period included the New Sensation , New Era , Water Queen , and the Princess . New inventions such as the steamer tow and the steam calliope greatly increased both territory and audiences, and Stephen Foster’s songs added charm to their simple programs. With

4752-456: The original production were as follows: The original production ran four-and-a-half hours during tryouts but was trimmed to just over three by the time it got to Broadway. During previews, four songs, " Mis'ry's Comin' Aroun ", "I Would Like to Play a Lover's Part", "Let's Start the New Year" and "It's Getting Hotter in the North", were cut from the show. The song "Be Happy, Too" was cut after

4840-467: The plot of Show Boat alike trace the course of American life across the divide separating the nineteenth century from the twentieth, an epochal shift felt with particular power in the 1920s when the effects of World War I and a series of overlapping transformations in daily life were altering the fabric of the nation." Ferber's novel was inspired by a conversation she had with the producer Winthrop Ames in 1924. Ames, to whom Ferber dedicated her novel,

4928-443: The premiere at the opening on his new Broadway theatre on Sixth Avenue, the epic scope of the work required an unusually long period of development. Show Boat went through numerous revisions during tryout performances. Additionally, Ziegfeld was concerned that the serious tone of the musical would not appeal to audiences and strongly disliked the songs Ol' Man River and Mis'ry's Comin' Aroun . He ultimately decided to open

5016-399: The production one of "unimpeachable skill and taste". He termed Terris "a revelation"; Winninger "extraordinarily persuasive and convincing"; and Bledsoe's singing "remarkably effective". The character Joe, the stevedore who sings "Ol' Man River", was expanded from the novel and written specifically by Kern and Hammerstein for Paul Robeson , already a noted actor and singer. Although he is

5104-438: The radio productions eliminated the miscegenation aspect of the plot. Notable exceptions were the 1940 Cavalcade of America broadcast and the 1952 Lux Radio Theatre broadcast. 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. Show Boat boldly portrayed racial issues and

5192-518: The rivers in the following years, and some of them began to do other performances besides theater. One popular showboat during this period was the Floating Circus Palace of Gilbert R. Spalding and Charles J. Rogers, built in 1851, that featured large-scale equestrian spectacles. By the middle of the nineteenth century, showboats could seat up to 3,400 and regularly featured wax museums and equestrian shows. Showboats disappeared entirely with

5280-455: The ship's cook. He replies that he has "seen a lot like [Ravenal] on the river." As Magnolia goes inside the boat to tell her friend Julie about the handsome stranger, Joe mutters that she ought to ask the river for advice. He and the other dock workers reflect on the wisdom and indifference of " Ol' Man River ", who does not seem to care what the world's troubles are, but "jes' keeps rollin' along". Magnolia finds Julie inside and announces that she

5368-405: The show and providing opportunities for a chorus that featured beautiful white women. They sought the star talents of African-American bass-baritone Paul Robeson . Robeson had achieved acclaim on the concert stage as a singer of spirituals and was an ideal choice to perform the spiritual-like music that reflected the music theme in Ferber's novel. To attract him, they increased the prominence of

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5456-868: The show in a pre-Broadway tour from November 15 to December 19, 1927. The locations included the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. , the Nixon Theatre in Pittsburgh , the Ohio Theatre in Cleveland , and the Erlanger Theatre in Philadelphia . The show opened on Broadway at the Ziegfeld Theatre on December 27, 1927. The critics were immediately enthusiastic, and the show was a great popular success, running

5544-534: The show premiered, or in 1932 when its first revival was staged. Late 20th-century 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 (1991). In April 1926, Edna Ferber 's fifth novel, Show Boat , began publication in a serialized version in the magazine Woman's Home Companion ( WHC ). The complete book

5632-450: The showboat band, and the crowd follows. A handsome riverboat gambler, Gaylord Ravenal , appears on the levee and is taken with eighteen-year-old Magnolia ("Nolie") Hawks, an aspiring performer and the daughter of Cap'n Andy and his wife Parthenia Ann ("Parthy"). Magnolia is likewise smitten with Ravenal (" Make Believe "). She seeks advice from Joe, a black dock worker aboard the boat, who has returned from buying flour for his wife Queenie,

5720-501: The size of the role in the musical. This also allowed Hammerstein to reshape the role into a sympathetic figure. In the novel, Julie is denounced for both her deception in passing as white and for her miscegenation. Hammerstein replaced this castigation with a sympathetic and affirming speech by Parthy in which the audience is led to see that Julie is unfairly condemned by a racist and immoral society. In this aspect, Hammerstein's libretto becomes an anti-racist and politically engaged story in

5808-400: The song which Julie taught her years ago. Julie secretly quits her job 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 their daughter Magnolia. Andy 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

5896-474: The source of inspired versus uninspired acting in the almost entirely white realm of Broadway theater." Ferber's Show Boat was an unlikely candidate for a musical adaptation in the 1920s: Its heroine's unhappy marriage, her independence, and her grit in surviving as a single mother after being abandoned by a morally flawed husband ran counter to the typical portrayal of women in Broadway musicals as helpless victims who need rescuing. And Julie's tragic subplot

5984-412: The standard, " After the Ball ". Magnolia becomes a great musical star. More than 20 years pass, and it is 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 his reunion with Magnolia. Andy knows that Magnolia is retiring and returning to the Cotton Blossom with Kim, who has become a Broadway star. Kim gives her admirers

6072-546: The tale and refocus the story on Magnolia's relationship with Ravenal. They skipped Magnolia's childhood and relationship with her mother, and rather than concentrating on the relationship with her daughter, the musical ends with her reconciliation with Ravenal, a redemptive and more romantic arc than in the novel. They also brightened Julie's story somewhat and harmonized it with broader social themes. Kern arranged an introduction to Ferber in October 1926 through their mutual friend,

6160-505: The time, and when Queenie asks if she can sing the entire song, Julie obliges. During the rehearsal for that evening, Julie and Steve learn that the town sheriff is coming to arrest them. Steve takes out a large pocket knife and makes a cut on the back of her hand, sucking the blood and swallowing it. Pete returns with the sheriff, who insists the show cannot proceed because Julie is a mulatto who has been passing as white and local law prohibits mixed marriages . Julie admits that her mother

6248-469: The trip. Much of the world of the novel was based on stories he told to Ferber. One, involving a family of showboat performers with mixed-race children, were the basis for the novel's subplot of the characters Julie and Steve. Julie, a mixed-race woman passing as white, and her white husband Steve broke miscegenation laws of the era by marrying. Magnolia was a typical heroine of a Ferber novel, who tended to base her female leads on her herself. Magnolia

6336-422: The two "make believe" that he is her "real daddy", and he weeps. Magnolia arrives and sends Kim aboard. She and Ravenal hesitate and then embrace, and she leads him onto the boat. Parthy is as happy as Captain Andy to see the reunion. Joe and the chorus sing "Ol' Man River", and the ship heads down river. Julie watches from a distance and blows them a gentle kiss as the Cotton Blossom recedes. The musical numbers in

6424-782: The types of 19th-century paddle steamer ships active on the Mississippi. She boarded the James Adams Floating Palace Theatre in April 1925, leaving North Carolina, and spent five days on the ship while it traversed the Pamlico River . Ferber described the voyage as resulting in a "treasure trove of show-boat material, human, touching, true". Onboard, she attended rehearsals and took on jobs from selling and taking tickets to performing small roles. She also spoke with audience members. The ship's captain, Charles Hunter, hosted

6512-439: 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

6600-412: Was acquitted of murder. Cap'n Andy calls Parthy "narrow-minded" and defends Ravenal by announcing that he also once killed a man. Parthy faints, but the ceremony proceeds. Six years have passed, and it is 1893. Ravenal and Magnolia have moved to Chicago , where they make a precarious living from Ravenal's gambling. At first they are rich and enjoying the good life ("Why Do I Love You?") By 1903, they have

6688-413: Was also cut beginning in 1946. It was restored in the 1951 film version and several stage productions since the 1980s. The score also includes four songs not written for Show Boat : " Bill " was originally written by Kern and P. G. Wodehouse in 1917 and was reworked by Hammerstein for Show Boat . Two other songs not by Kern and Hammerstein, "Goodbye, My Lady Love" by Joseph E. Howard and " After

6776-497: Was black, but Steve tells the sheriff that he also has "black blood" in him, so their marriage is legal in Mississippi. The troupe backs him up, boosted by the ship's pilot Windy McClain, a longtime friend of the sheriff. The couple have escaped the charge of miscegenation, but they still have to leave the show boat; identified as black, they can no longer perform for the segregated white audience. Cap'n Andy fires Pete, but in spite of his sympathy for Julie and Steve, he cannot violate

6864-513: Was directed by Daniel Evans using the Goodspeed Musicals version of the show. The cast included Gina Beck as Magnolia, Lucy Briers as Parthy Ann and Malcolm Sinclair as Cap'n Andy. Despite very favorable reviews, the show closed at the end of August 2016. Show Boat has been adapted for film three times, and for television once. Show Boat was adapted for live radio at least seven times. Due to network censorship rules, many of

6952-586: Was directed by Robert Johanson and starred Eddie Bracken as Cap'n Andy. The Paper Mill production was preserved on videotape and broadcast on PBS . Livent Inc. produced Show Boat in Toronto in 1993, starring Rebecca Luker as Magnolia, Mark Jacoby as Ravenal, Lonette McKee as Julie, Robert Morse as Cap'n Andy, Elaine Stritch as Parthy, Michel Bell as Joe and Gretha Boston as Queenie. Co-produced and directed by Harold Prince and choreographed by Susan Stroman, closing in June 1995. A Broadway production opened at

7040-401: Was far darker than Broadway musicals' typical content. Rather than ending with a happy marriage to her male rescuer, Ferber's novel depicts Magnolia's marriage as the source of her problems followed by her triumphant solo journey to independence and success. Nevertheless, the novel's recurring music and entertainment themes made it an irresistible challenge for Kern and Hammerstein to adapt for

7128-491: Was first produced in 1927 by Florenz Ziegfeld . The premiere of Show Boat on Broadway was an important event in the history of American musical theatre. It "was a radical departure in musical storytelling, marrying spectacle with seriousness", compared with the trivial and unrealistic operettas , light musical comedies and "Follies"-type musical revues that defined Broadway in the 1890s and early 20th century. According to The Complete Book of Light Opera : Here we come to

7216-701: Was mounted by the New York City Opera with Burl Ives (Cap'n Andy), Laurel Hurley (Magnolia), Robert Rounseville (Ravenal), Helena Bliss (Julie), Marjorie Gateson (Parthy), Boris Aplon (Pete), Lawrence Winters (Joe), and Helen Phillips (Queenie) The Music Theatre of Lincoln Center company produced Show Boat in 1966 at the New York State Theater in a new production. It starred Barbara Cook (Magnolia), Constance Towers (Julie), Stephen Douglass (Ravenal), David Wayne (Cap'n Andy), Margaret Hamilton (Parthy) and William Warfield (Joe). It

7304-619: Was not set in an all-white mid-western town. Her decision to set the novel on a Mississippi River boat traveling south forced her to engage with race for the first time. While the central characters in Ferber's novel are predominantly white, the inclusion of secondary characters like Julie, Jo, Queenie and various unnamed black characters, provide a view of a multiracial world. The novel often presents black figures in relation to music; frequent references to spirituals and other forms of music associated with African-Americans provide background for Magnolia's musical journey. This choice reflected

7392-825: Was produced by Richard Rodgers , and Robert Russell Bennett once again provided a new overture and revised orchestrations. The Houston Grand Opera staged a revival of Show Boat that premiered at Jones Hall in Houston in June 1982 and then toured to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., and finally to

7480-478: Was producing Ferber's play Minick , which was preparing for its Broadway debut; its tryout performances were not going well. Following a difficult day, Ames joked that they should all join a showboat if the play flopped. Ferber had never heard of a showboat, and her curiosity began her fascination with 19th century showboats on the Mississippi River . She began months of research and became an expert on

7568-448: Was released in August 1926 by Doubleday, Page and Company before the magazine series finished the following September. The work was unusual content for a women's magazine of the period, with its inclusion of taboo subjects like infidelity, desertion, single motherhood, prostitution, gambling, and miscegenation . It was well received by both the public and the critics from the beginning, and

7656-424: Was the first racially integrated musical, in that both black and white performers appeared and sang on stage together. Ziegfeld's Follies featured solo African American performers such as Bert Williams , but would not have included a black woman in the chorus. Show Boat was structured with two choruses – a black chorus and a white chorus. Ethnomusicologist Richard Keeling noted that "Hammerstein uses

7744-522: Was the first fully staged musical production in the history of that venue. Karla Burns, who had appeared as Queenie in the 1983 Broadway revival, reprised the role for the Opera North and RSC production, becoming the first black performer to win the Laurence Olivier Award . A production was transferred from Sheffield 's Crucible Theatre to London's New London Theatre with previews beginning on April 9, 2016, and an official opening on April 25, 2016. It

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