Show Boat

Review of 2019 Glimmerglass Festival Production

Show Boat is agrand musical in the old style. It has a largecast, features some marvelous dance routines, a few great songs and touches onsome societal issues. It is also sentimental, sometimes corny with a few toomany coincidences but in the end it leaves you highly entertained andsatisfied. And that describes the Glimmerglass Festival’s gorgeously sung andbeautifully designed production directed by the highly capable FrancescaZambello.

Show Boat equals thegreat aria “Ol’ Man River,” a personification of the grand Mississippi River that"jes' keeps rollin' along". “Ol’ Man River” equalsthe unequalled voice of Paul Robeson. In this production Justin Hopkins as Joedoes justice to the song with his great midrange and wonderful rumbling lownotes.

But there is more to ShowBoat than one great song. Jerome Kernmarried Oscar Hammerstein II’s lyrics based on Edna Ferber’s novel and producedone of the landmarks in American musical theatre. The integration of plot andmusic, the subject matter which includes miscegenation and the overall qualityof the show have made a milestone that is frequently revived since its premierein 1927.

The Cotton Blossom is a floatingtheatre that travels along the Mississippi. The musical starts with a fistfightwhere the star of the show Steve (Charles H. Eaton) knocks out Pete theengineer (Maxwell Levy) for making passes at his wife Julie (Alyson Cambridge).The crux of the incident is to bring into focus one of the most disgracefulchapters in endemic American racism: the criminal prohibition of interracialmarriage and sex. Julie has Negro blood and that makes her marriage to Steve acrime. Before the sheriff can arrest her, Steve cuts her hand and sucks some ofher blood. Thus he can prove that he has Negro blood as well and their marriageis legal!

This is a minor but strikingincident in the musical. We then get on with the main plotline which is therelationship between Magnolia (Lauren Snouffer) and the debonair gamblerGaylord Ravenal (Michael Adams). He is tall, dark and handsome, as they say,and she is blonde and pretty. He sings "Where's the Mate for Me?" andthey both sing “Make Believe” and its love forever. Snouffer and Adams turn insuperb performances.

They marry, have a child and dowell until Ravenal returns to gambling, loses everything and disappears for acouple of decades. She hits bottom and rises to thetop on Broadway and loves Ravenal forever.

Magnolia’s father, Cap’n Andy isoverplayed by Lara Teeter who tries a bit too hard to be funny. His wife Parthya.k.a. Parthenia (played by Klea Blackhurst) is a termagant and her name givesaway her character. She is right about Ravenal but we prefer Andy’s judgmentbecause we do not want to interfere with the course of love especially in amusical.

The musical covers some 40 yearsfrom 1887 to 1927 and by the end Magnolia’s and Ravenal’s daughter Kim (HayleyAyers) is grown up. Andy arranges for a reunion on the Cotton Blossom. Kimrushes into her father’s arms but Zambello, quite smartly, does not haveMagnolia do the same. It may be a musical but reality has not beenabrogated. 

Show Boat has a chorus of stevedoresand working girls who perform a number of songs and brilliant danceschoreographed by Eric Sean Fogel.

The sets by Peter J. Davison fromthe brilliantly coloured show boat to the gritty harbour to the posh hotel andTrocadero are superb.

The Glimmerglass FestivalOrchestra is conducted by James Lowe.

The Mississippi may be eternallyrolling along oblivious to the affairs of humanity but humanity, especially theaudience in The Alice Busch Opera Theatre was certainly not oblivious to “Ol’Man River” or this production of Show Boat as marked by their standing ovation.

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Show Boat by Jerome Kern (music) and OscarHammerstein II (book and lyrics) is being performed thirteen times between July6 and August 24, 2019 at the Alice Busch Opera Theater, Cooperstown, New York.Tickets and information (607) 547-0700 or www.glimmerglass.org