Best "Show Boat" Recording

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 7/17/14 at 7:08pm

I have recently been listening to the complete recording of Show Boat and I simply love the score. With the concert coming up I thought it would be nice to get another recording (I got this recording for the complete score). Which recording of this score do you all consider definitive? I'm intrigued by the version starring Barbara Cook...

[SomethingPeculiar]

Posted: 7/17/14 at 8:44pm

It doesn't get much better than the complete recording (John McGlinn), IMHO.
No 2 productions/recordings of the show have ever been the same, but the pre-bway '93 Toronto recording (with Stritch, Robert Morse, Marc Jacoby, Rebecca Luker) is pretty good if you can find it. So is the Franz Allers recording with Barbara Cook and John Raitt.

[mjohnson2]

Posted: 7/17/14 at 9:54pm

Is the complete recording the one by EMI classics? If so, yes that is the best recording.

[Hest882]

Posted: 7/17/14 at 10:41pm

Yep, get the John McGlinn. It's by far the best choice.

[The Other One]

Posted: 7/18/14 at 5:46am

I agree that the McGlinn recording is the best, but the 1966 Lincoln Center Revival recording, with Barbara Cook, Stephen Douglass, Constance Towers, Allyn Ann McLerie and William Warfield, is also a must.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 7/18/14 at 5:59am

Today the best recording is the one with Elaine Stritch.

[mjohnson2]

Posted: 7/18/14 at 6:27am

Yeah I would recommend getting both the complete and the lincoln center versions because though the completeness is nice to have, you don't always want to listen to almost the entire show, so that recording is probably the best abridged version.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 7/18/14 at 3:06pm

If you're looking to supplement the superb complete recording with something shorter for more casual listening, I'll second (or third or fourth?) the '66 Lincoln center recording. It's probably the best "highlights" style recording I've heard. Babrara Cook sings Magnolia's songs gorgeously and I love Stephen Douglass too.

The complete one is the absolute best though. The cast is pretty great, and the work done to restore that score to its original state is astounding. "It's Getting Hotter In The North" is one of my favorites.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 7/18/14 at 3:48pm

I have the McGlinn recording but, BOY is that a chore to wade through. There is such a thing as TOO definitive and this one is it for me.

I personally love the '94 Hal Prince revival as well. The use of "Mis'ry's Comin' Aroun" as a theme as potent as "Ol' Man River" is wonderful and I adore the dance montages to move us through the intervening years. Also, Lonette McKee's Julie is my favorite ever. And now with Stritch's passing, there's one more reason to savor this recording for her rendition of "Why Do I Love You?'