show boat Flashcards
Broadway in the 1920s
New York’s theatregoers could pick from a huge number of
shows and a large variety of types of entertainment
* More new shows opened on Broadway in the 1920s than any
other decade
* The 1926-1927 season boasted 53 new shows, the largest
number of the decade
What happened to these new shows
in the 1926-1927 season
Half ran more than 10 performances
(p). The other half were called flops
* 13 shows ran 200-300p
* 2 ran more than 450p: The Desert Song
(447p) and Good News (557p)
* On December 27, 1927, when Show
Boat opened at the Ziegfeld Theater
(left), it began a run that would last
527 performances
Which genres were the most
popular in 1920
- Operetta
- Musical comedy
- Revue
operetta characteristics
Set in an exotic, distant
locale
* Populated by aristocrats and
historical figures
* About class structure and
hierarchy
* Performed by “legitimate”
singers
* Music overpowered lyrics
Characters sang to
each other
* Waltzes
* Large “classical”
orchestra with a full
string section
* Male star
muscial comedy characertistics
Set in a contemporary, urban
locale
* Populated by recognizable
modern characters
* About contemporary issues
* Performed by actors who
could sing and dance
* Lyrics “stood alone,” loaded
with colloquialisms
Characters sang in a
presentational style
* Contemporary dance idioms
* Smaller pit band with
saxophones, banjos, and
reed book sections
* Female star
show boat composer
Jerome Kern
Lyricist show boat
oscar hammertsien II
book writer show boat
Hammertsien
source show boat
show boat the novel by edna ferber
producer show boat
florenz ziegfled
directors show boat
zeke colvan and hammerstoen
Jerome Kern
American composer
* Started his career as a rehearsal
pianist and songplugger working in
the sheet music industry on Tin
Pan Alley
* By 1927, Kern had already written
about 20 scores for Broadway,
including many musical
comedies (Oh, Boy!, Leave It To
Jane); called the “Princess shows”
* Kern composed more than 700
songs
Oscar Hammerstein II
American lyricist and bookwriter
* Theatre heritage
* Dropped out of law school to pursue a career in
theatre
* Mentored by lyricist and bookwriter Otto
Harbach
* Hammerstein had worked on many operettas
as well as a musical comedy called Sunny with
Kern
* Later collaborated with composer Richard
Rodgers on several wildly successful musicals:
Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King
and I, The Sound of Music
Florenz Ziegfeld
American Broadway impresario
* Most famous for his extravagant
variety shows, called revues,
The Ziegfeld Follies (1907-31)
* Watch clip about Ziegfeld and
revues from Broadway: The
American Musical (PBS) (6:00-
15:30)
Main characters show boat
Capt’n Andy Hawks, owner of the Cotton Blossom
* Parthy Ann, his wife
* Magnolia, their daughter, an aspiring performer
* Gaylord Ravenal, a gambler
* Julie, the leading lady on the Cotton Blossom
* Steve, Julie’s husband, and also a leading player
* Queenie, the ship’s cook
* Joe, a black dock worker and Queenie’s husband
* Frank and Ellie, the comic players
* Kim, Magnolia and Ravenal’s daughter
* Pete, an engineer who is interested in Julie
ol man river starts w
underscored dialogue
ol man river a ballad
Most ballads are love songs but this
one is a song directed to and about the Mississippi River
ol man river theme song
Ol’ Man River” has a
thematic function; it suggests that the fates of the
characters are in the hands of the river
Paul Robeson
American singer, actor, political activist,
and one of the most famous interpreters of
the “classical” spiritual
* Educated at Rutgers University and
Columbia University, where he received his
law degree in 1923
* When racial discrimination kept him from
pursuing a career in law, Robeson turned to
music and theatre. He would perform
widely and record over 300 songs, including
“Ol’ Man River”; in addition to Show Boat,
he acted the title role of Shakespeare’s
Othello in England
make believe
romantic duet
operetta
cant help but lovin that man
I am song
musical scene
Diegetic and non-diegetic music
Diegetic
* The character is aware of the music as music
* For ex., a character plays an instrument or turns on the radio,
and music is heard. The audience understands that the
character is “hearing” the music as such; ex. “Can’t Help
Lovin’ Dat Man”
* Non-diegetic
* The character is unaware of the music
* For ex., a character seems not to realize that she has moved
from speech into song; ex. “Make Believe” (sort of)
What makes Show Boat a
landmark musical?
Show Boat starts with an ambitious source, Ferber’s novel, which
delves into serious issues: poverty, racism and miscegenation, marital
strife and abandonment, compulsive gambling, alcoholism, and
dishonesty
* Show Boat demonstrated that the musical was a genre to be taken
seriously
* Show Boat is one of the first shows to feature black and white actors
together on stage
* Show Boat has sustained a remarkable reception history with a long
line of revivals and recordings, entertaining generations of audiences
* Kern and Hammerstein’s score has maintained its popularity, and
several numbers have become standards, “Ol’ Man River,” “Can’t
Help Lovin’ Dat Man,” “Bill”…
Why is Show Boat problematic
today
Some of Show Boat’s characters, like Joe and Queenie,
have not aged well. They perpetuate racist stereotypes
about black people and culture
* Show Boat’s creators were all white. If the show was
mounted today, the production team should be as
diverse as possible
* With a cast of 70+ performers, Show Boat would be
almost impossible to mount on Broadway today due to
costs
