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NYT: Why ‘Show Boat’ Is America’s Most Enduring, Unstable Musical- Page 2

NYT: Why ‘Show Boat’ Is America’s Most Enduring, Unstable Musical

verywellthensigh
#25NYT: Why ‘Show Boat’ Is America’s Most Enduring, Unstable Musical
Posted: 1/12/25 at 3:31pm

What a sad state to reduce characters to sashes and buttons.  

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HeyMrMusic
#26NYT: Why ‘Show Boat’ Is America’s Most Enduring, Unstable Musical
Posted: 1/13/25 at 10:33am

I saw this the other night. I went in expecting an experimental, pointed commentary on Show Boat based on the show blurb, the title change, and the NYT article. Instead, this was just a poorly executed, badly conceived, confusingly directed, ultimately straightforward production of Show Boat.

Now before anyone cries anti-racism (too late, eye roll), the “white” sashes/buttons are mainly used for the audience to keep track which characters are white. Yes, the white actors also wear them. There’s so much doubling in the small cast that it’s just so confusing. The messy doubling was way more offensive than any commentary on race. Parthy is played by two actors simultaneously and side-by-side, and one of these actors also plays Queenie. It seems like everyone, including Magnolia, plays Windy at some point, which wouldn’t matter if he weren’t constantly referenced and also pivotal in the miscegenation scene. The only character the white sashes/buttons work for is obviously Julie. The sashes themselves were so ill-fitting and kept falling off the actors’ shoulders.

I know Show Boat pretty well. Very little was rewritten, so it’s confusing why the director is given an adaptation credit (hardly the first director to make their own cuts and edits to this show). There are two new songs (one replaces “After the Ball,” and I’m wondering if that isn’t in public domain due to it being written by other writers). The other is the song sung by the Black actors, but they are all facing inward toward each other and it literally starts with the Lioness Chant from The Lion King. If it’s meant to celebrate Black joy, it alienated the audience by not including them, but maybe that’s the point.

I guess I was just super bummed and disappointed by this. I happen to like Show Boat. It has a glorious score and the authors were so progressive and pushed the envelope with audience comfortability regarding the race theme. Yes, some things are outdated, after all the show is about 100 years old. There are shows not five years old that haven’t aged well. Show Boat has great bones, but this bare-bones production doesn’t show it or even make any coherent commentary on it.

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kdogg36
#27NYT: Why ‘Show Boat’ Is America’s Most Enduring, Unstable Musical
Posted: 1/13/25 at 11:09am

CurtainsUpat8 said: "If colorblind casting works so well... can I do an all white cast of a August Wilson play?"

If you live long enough that the play becomes public domain (very unlikely) or get permission from the Wilson estate (even less likely), you can. Of course you'd also need to find interested actors and audiences, which is another thing that's pretty unlikely.

"The author is the KING of any production."

Not once the copyright expires.

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Kad
#28NYT: Why ‘Show Boat’ Is America’s Most Enduring, Unstable Musical
Posted: 1/13/25 at 12:15pm

"After the Ball" is definitely public domain since it was written in the 1890s.


"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."

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HeyMrMusic
#29NYT: Why ‘Show Boat’ Is America’s Most Enduring, Unstable Musical
Posted: 1/13/25 at 8:01pm

Kad said: ""After the Ball" is definitely public domain since it was written in the 1890s."

Lol duh. Anyway, the new song uses the same chord structure as “After the Ball,” so I don’t see the need to have written basically just a new melody and lyric with the same function as the original. An unnecessary addition.

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EricMontreal22
#30NYT: Why ‘Show Boat’ Is America’s Most Enduring, Unstable Musical
Posted: 1/14/25 at 10:28pm

HeyMrMusic said: "There are two new songs (one replaces “After the Ball,” and I’m wondering if that isn’t in public domain due to it being written by other writers). The other is the song sung by the Black actors, but they are all facing inward toward each other and it literally starts with the Lioness Chant fromThe Lion King. If it’s meant to celebrate Black joy, it alienated the audience by not including them, but maybe that’s the point."

Thanks for this detailed review--I remain fascinated to hear about this production.

I am pretty sure that second number is In Dahomey, which as mentioned earlier, apparently now starts with actual Zulu lyrics (which kinda ruins Hammerstein's ironic point of the song, but as discussed earlier, that point has been very hard to carry off and I don't know of any modern productions that have used the song since the 1946 revival and long running tour--which is too bad, as I love it musically.)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-M5-fafnA4

Edit: that's from the magnificent complete McGlinn recording which has one fault--the lyrics in chorus numbers are often incoherent unless you know them (to be fair, I suspect this was partly true of the original 1927 performances too).  You can hear the lyrics a bit better in the only other recording I know of the song, the JAY recording of the complete revised 1946 version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-M5-fafnA4
 

Updated On: 1/14/25 at 10:28 PM

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HeyMrMusic
#31NYT: Why ‘Show Boat’ Is America’s Most Enduring, Unstable Musical
Posted: 1/15/25 at 12:50am

Here are the credits for the new songs:

Come Back to Me music and lyrics by Dionne McClain-Freeney, additional lyrics by David Herskovits
Dumisa trad. And new composition by Dionne McClain-Freeney

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joevitus
#32NYT: Why ‘Show Boat’ Is America’s Most Enduring, Unstable Musical
Posted: 1/15/25 at 11:25am

EricMontreal22 said: "
Edit: that's from the magnificent complete McGlinn recording which has one fault--the lyrics in chorus numbers are often incoherent unless you know them (to be fair, I suspect this was partly true of the original 1927 performances too). You can hear the lyrics a bit better in the only other recording I know of the song, the JAY recording of the complete revised 1946 version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-M5-fafnA4
"

I'm very very grateful for that recording, but it's seriously flawed by the use of opera singers whose voices are just wrong for the material, even given the connection to operetta the score unquestionably has. The tempi are also frustratingly sedate, no matter how authentic. Pick up the pace!

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EricMontreal22
#33NYT: Why ‘Show Boat’ Is America’s Most Enduring, Unstable Musical
Posted: 1/15/25 at 6:17pm

I think it mostly, mostly works (I would have cast Julie, certainly, with a musical theatre or cabaret star though the opera voices for Gaylord and Magnolia more or less work for me.)  I do agree about some of the tempi--and for a while it seemed to create an unfortunate precedent with record labels realizing they could sell their opera stars in all kinds of more or less complete musical theatre releases with some far less suitable results.

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sinister teashop
#35NYT: Why ‘Show Boat’ Is America’s Most Enduring, Unstable Musical
Posted: 1/16/25 at 8:49am

That was some low hanging fruit to go after. But Target Margin, as clueless as ever, supplied the opportunity for Green to use them to make his post-Biden pronouncements. 

But I agree that "Show Boat" in 2025 would be more devastating by doing what it did in 1927 in showing how racism keeps the wheels turning of not just "show business" but society itself. 

I would like to see Steven Rattazi as Cap'n Andy in another production.

Updated On: 1/16/25 at 08:49 AM

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Jordan Catalano
#36NYT: Why ‘Show Boat’ Is America’s Most Enduring, Unstable Musical
Posted: 1/16/25 at 10:52am

Saw this last night and pretty much agree with the reviews. I don’t really have much to add to what they said but I did manage to stay through the whole thing, which I’m proud of myself for doing. 


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