Broadway's Watershed Moments: How ‘Show Boat’ Changed Broadway
by Ashley Griffin, Guest Editorial
Editor’s Note: Later this month, a musical will be having its world premiere. While I can’t legally provide too many details about the show(I certainly will after it opens), what I can say is that it’s magnificent. It is so good, in fact, that I feel it will provide a monumental shift in the way musical theatre is composed, cast, staged, etc. When thinking about the history of Broadway, I feel this has only happened a handful of times. To discuss this more, Ashley Griffin has written the following series to talk about each show that had such an impact. ~ Chris Peterson
To read the earlier parts of this series, click below:
If you ever take a Musical Theater History class and you are asked on a test:
“What is the most important musical of all time?”
I 100% guarantee the teacher is looking for “Show Boat” as the answer.
In academic circles, for very specific reasons, “Show Boat” is, inarguably, the most important, influential musical ever written.
A musical is generally defined as a show that uses equal integration of acting, singing, and dancing to tell and advance the story (though the dancing part has faded significantly in many contemporary musicals…)
An outcropping of Opera, Operetta and what was termed “Ethnic Theater” (consisting primarily of Yiddish and Black theater), before musicals there might have been acting, singing and dancing, but they weren’t always in the same show, and certainly didn’t work together to advance the story.
For example, in Opera, dance was principally relegated to “divertissements” where the story would stop and a mini ballet would be performed for absolutely no dramatic reason.
The first musical is generally considered to be 1866’s “The Black Crook.” In what is a truly hilarious story of an entire genre being created completely by accident, a dance troop whose theater had burned down joined forces with a melodrama writer to save money (and get a good space) and smashed their two productions together, forcing the storylines to (somewhat) intersect. The intersection was vital to the creation of the American musical, but it would take about sixty more years for intersection to evolve to integration.
But what makes “Show Boat” such a landmark piece is that it is the first show to incorporate singing, dancing and acting completely equally to advance the story. “The Black Crook” might have had dance moments that somewhat related to the story, but “Show Boat” was the first completely “integrated” musical where remove one element and your story could, quite literally, no longer be told. It also dealt with dark and very serious themes that traditionally had been relegated to other, older, artforms. It set the standard for everything that came after and showed that musical theater could be a serious art form at the level of Opera and Ballet.
Based on the 1926 novel by Edna Ferber, “Show Boat” was written by Jerome Kern (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (book and lyrics) (Yes, the same Hammerstein who would go on to collaborate with Richard Rodgers and set in motion the Golden Age of musical theater.) First produced on Broadway in 1927 by Florenz Ziegfeld (the master of spectacle) it was immediately heralded as a landmark show that was revived as early as 1932.
It follows the Hawks family who run a Show Boat in 1887 – a large boat that would travel down the river and stage performances each evening (think the earliest form of cruise ship entertainment, only the guests disembarked after every show.) The central story focuses on the Hawke’s daughter, Magnolia, and her doomed romance with a handsome riverboat gambler, Gaylord Ravenal.
The secondary story follows the troop’s leading lady, Julie La Verne and her husband, Steve Baker. Julie is mixed race, but has been able to pass for white. Her husband, Steve, is white. At the time it was illegal in certain states for those of different races to be married.
When it is revealed that Julie is half black, she and Steve must contend with the law. Backed by others on the Show Boat, and bolstered by Steve’s statement that he has “black blood” in him, they are not arrested, but are still forced to leave the Show Boat, and lose their jobs, as they can no longer perform for the segregated white audience.
The discovery of Julie’s ethnicity is one example of the strong integration of music and storytelling. In the scene, Magnolia confesses to Julie that she’s in love and Julie, though dubious about the moral character of Magnolia’s beau (Gaylord), sympathizes with Magnolia – knowing she couldn’t stop loving Steve no matter what, just as Magnolia can’t stop loving Gaylord. Julie starts singing “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” – a song she’s known forever and means a great deal to her. But when Queenie, a black woman on the ship, hears, she starts questioning how Julie could possibly know it, as it’s a song Queenie has only ever heard “colored folks” sing.
The songs, like most successful Broadway scores of the time, became longtime mainstays of popular music – with “Ol’ Man River” being recorded by everyone from Al Jolson to Frank Sinatra to The Temptations (though there were lyric changes along the way, softening specific racial imagery and language (including the “N” word – though it is important to note that the song and the original lyrics were sung by a black actor in a black role in the original stage production.))
“Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” is still considered one of the greatest jazz standards recorded by such luminaries as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Barbara Streisand, Sammy Davis, Jr. and even Björk.
The show was also the first real pairing of pure spectacle (they brought an entire boat out onstage) with a serious story with deep, controversial themes. And it’s important to note that the show’s treatment of it’s black characters was revolutionary for the time.
With the exception of Magnolia, all the most sympathetic, loved characters are black. Quite a feat for a show that premiered when minstrelsy was at a high (onstage and on film. Let’s not forget that the first “talkie”, that also came out in 1927, was an Al Jolson picture) That’s not to say there weren’t racially insensitive, or downright racist elements of “Show Boat”, but it was remarkable for the time in its depiction of complex, real black characters (Julie is arguably the most empathetic character in the piece, largely BECAUSE of her blackness (though not singularly because of it))
The show also cemented Kern and Hammerstein as titans of their field. In fact, much of the integration of this new “integrated musical” form, and believing musicals could tackle deep themes at all came from Hammerstein – who advocated for both elements his entire life and would go on to bring them into his collaboration with Richard Rodgers (Rodger’s earlier musicals with Lorenz Hart might have been successful, charming, fun and even beautiful, but deep and moving they were not)
“Show Boat” became the standard by which musical theater was measured. Of course, there were still fun and frivolous shows, but “Show Boat” kicked a door wide open and paved the way for a new kind of musical. One can even trace the American musical theater (and musical theater writer) dynasty it spawned directly to the present day.
Oscar Hammerstein II became the close friend and mentor of Stephen Sondheim, who kicked the door open even wider; he then became the mentor of Jonathan Larson. Current musical theater superstar Lin Manuel-Miranda was so inspired by Larson that he spearheaded and directed the film adaptation of Larson’s “tick…tick…BOOM!” With the exception of “Hair”, every musical featured in this series of “most influential American musicals) was written by Hammerstein, Sondheim, Larson, or Miranda.
“Show Boat” is the show every musical theater artist must know. It might not be your cup of tea, you might downright hate it but you must know it and understand it’s significance.