Showboat synopsis

1927 musical by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II

For other uses, see Show Boat (disambiguation).

Show Boat is a musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.

It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling 1926 novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the performers, stagehands and dock workers on the Cotton Blossom, a Mississippi Rivershow boat, over 40 years from 1887 to 1927.

Its themes include racial prejudice and tragic, enduring love. The musical contributed such classic songs as "Ol' Man River", "Make Believe", and "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man".

The musical was first produced in 1927 by Florenz Ziegfeld. The premiere of Show Boat on Broadway was an important event in the history of American musical theatre. It "was a radical departure in musical storytelling, marrying spectacle with seriousness", compared with the trivial and unrealistic operettas, light musical comedies and "Follies"-type musical revues that defined Broadway in the 1890s and early 20th century.^[1] According to The Complete Bo