Boat Gambler
Boat Gambler
Show Boat is a musical in two acts with music by Jerome Kern and book (based on a novel by Edna Ferber) and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. although the song Bill , originally written by Kern and P. G. Wodehouse in 1917, was reworked by Hammerstein for Show Boat . Two other songs not by Kern and Hammerstein — "Goodbye, My Lady Love" by Joseph Howard and "After the Ball" by Charles K. Harris — have always been integral to the show. 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, and 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. The musical has 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.
Background
Show Boat is based on a best-selling 1926 novel of the same name by Edna Ferber. Ferber spent several weeks on the James Adams Floating Palace Theater in Bath, North Carolina, gathering information for the novel about a disappearing American phenomenon: the 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 musicalize it, asked critic Alexander Woollcott to introduce him to Ferber in October 1926. Woollcott introduced him to Ferber that same evening during the intermission of Kern's latest musical, Criss Cross . Ferber granted Kern and his collaborator, Oscar Hammerstein II, the rights to musicalize her novel, and the collaborators, after composing most of the first act songs, auditioned their material for producer Florenz Ziegfeld, sensing that only Ziegfeld could create the elaborate production necessary for Ferber's sprawling work. Ziegfeld was impressed with the show and agreed to produce it, writing in a letter the day after, "This is the best musical comedy I have ever been fortunate to get a hold of; I am thrilled to produce it, this show is the opportunity of my life..." Show Boat , with its serious and dramatic nature, was considered an unusual choice for Ziegfeld, previously known mainly for revues such as the Follies.
Though Ziegfeld anticipated opening his new theatre on Sixth Avenue with Show Boat , the epic nature of the work required an unusually long gestation period and extensive changes during out-of-town tryouts. Ziegfeld, impatient with Kern and Hammerstein and troubled by the serious tone they insisted on preserving, decided to open the theatre in April 1927 with Rio Rita , an operetta. When Rio Rita proved to be a success, Show Boat's premiere was delayed until Rio Rita closed.
Plot synopsis
Note: There is no definitive version of the libretto of Show Boat ; minor revisions have been made by the creators and subsequent producers and directors over the years.
In 1887, the show boat Cotton Blossom arrives at the river dock in Natchez, Mississippi. Cap'n Andy Hawks, owner of the showboat, introduces all of his actors to the excited crowd on the levee. A fist fight breaks out between Steve Baker, the leading man of the troupe, and Pete, a rough, coarse engineer who had been making passes at Steve's wife, Julie La Verne, the company's leading lady. Steve knocks Pete down, and Pete swears revenge, apparently knowing some dark secret about Julie. Cap'n Andy pretends to the shocked crowd that the fight was a preview of a scene from one of the melodramas performed on the boat. 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, one of the workers aboard the boat. He replies that there are "lots like 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 joyously 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 suspiciously asks why Julie knows that song; Queenie says she has only heard "colored folks" sing that song. Magnolia declares that Julie sings it all the time, and when Queenie asks her if she can sing the entire song, Julie defensively obliges.
During the rehearsal for that evening's show, Julie and Steve find out that the town sheriff is coming to arrest them. To the shock of all except Julie, 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. Steve, because he swallowed Julie's blood (and therefore has at least "one drop of black blood" in him), is able to claim that he too is mulatto. The sympathetic troupe backs him up, boosted by ship's pilot Windy McClain, a longtime friend of the sheriff. The sheriff lets Julie and Steve go, but they prepare to leave town anyway. Cap'n Andy fires Pete. Gaylord Ravenal returns and asks for passage on the boat; his gambling has cost him the boat ticket he planned to use to leave town. Noticing Ravenal's good looks, Andy hires him as the new leading man, and suggests, over Parthy's objections, that Magnolia be the new leading lady. Julie bids a tearful goodbye to Magnolia and leaves with Steve.
Weeks later, Magnolia and Gaylord are an enormous hit with the crowds and have fallen deeply in love. Gaylord proposes to Magnolia, and she accepts. The two are married while Parthy is out of town: she disapproves of Gaylord.
Years pass; it is now 1893. Gaylord and Magnolia have moved to Chicago and are now living off the money that Ravenal makes gambling. By 1903, they have a daughter, Kim, and after years of alternately being rich and poor, depending on Gaylord's winnings, they are completely broke and reduced to renting a room in a cheap boarding house. Depressed and shamed by his inability to support his family, Gaylord leaves Magnolia. Frank and Ellie, two actors on the boat, choose this time to visit. These old friends seek a singing job for Magnolia at the Trocadero, the club where they are doing a New Year's show. Julie, abandoned by Steve and now a drunken cabaret singer at the Trocadero, hears Magnolia singing "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" for her audition, the song Julie taught her years ago. Julie secretly abandons her position so that Magnolia can fill it, and Magnolia never learns of her sacrifice.
On New Year's Eve, Andy, in Chicago with Parthy for a surprise visit, ends up at the Trocadero while celebrating without her. He is unaware of Magnolia's presence, only to discover her choked with emotion and nearly being booed off stage. Andy rallies the crowd to her defense by standing up and initiating a grand sing-along of the old song "After the Ball". Magnolia becomes a great musical star.
More than 20 years pass; it is now 1927. Magnolia has become an international star of the stage and radio. Cap'n Andy has a chance meeting with Ravenal, and, knowing that Magnolia is retiring from the stage and returning to the Cotton Blossom with Kim, who has by now become a Broadway star herself, Andy arranges for a reunion. Although Ravenal is uncertain whether he has the right to ask Magnolia to take him back, she does. As the happy couple walks up the boat's gangplank, Joe and everyone sing "Ol' Man River".
Musical numbers
The original production ran four-and-a-half hours during tryouts, but was trimmed to just over three by the time it actually got to Broadway. 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 retaine
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