TUESDAY November 8, 7:30 p.m. (finishing around 10:25 p.m.)

SHOW BOAT

A musical in two acts

by Jerome Kern (1885-1945)

Book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960),
based on the novel by Edna Ferber

Orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett

First performed in New York in 1927

Cast

Production

A 2015 production from the San Francisco Opera

Directed by Francesca Zambello

Choreographed by Michele Lynch

Stage Design by Peter J. Davidson

Costumes by Paul Tazewell

Lighting design by Mark McCullough

San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus
conducted by John DeMain

Synopsis

ACT 1

1887, the show boat Cotton Blossom arrives at the river dock in Natchez, Mississippi. The Reconstruction era ended a decade ago, and white-dominated southern legislatures have imposed racial segregation. The boat's owner, Cap'n Andy Hawks, introduces his actors to the crowd on the levee. A fist fight breaks out between Steve Baker, the leading man of the troupe, and Pete, a rough engineer who had been making passes at Steve's wife, the leading lady, Julie La Verne. Julie is a mixed-race woman who passes as white. Steve knocks Pete down, and Pete swears revenge, suggesting he knows a dark secret about Julie. Cap'n Andy pretends to the shocked crowd that the fight was a preview of one of the melodramas to be performed.

A handsome riverboat gambler, Gaylord Ravenal, appears on the levee and is taken with 18-year-old Magnolia ("Nolie") Hawks, an aspiring performer and the daughter of Cap'n Andy and his wife Parthenia Ann (Parthy). Magnolia is likewise smitten with Ravenal. She seeks advice from Joe, a black dock worker aboard the boat, who has returned from buying flour for his wife Queenie, the ship's cook. As Magnolia goes inside the boat to tell her friend Julie about the handsome stranger, Joe mutters that she ought to ask the river for advice. He and the other dock workers reflect on the wisdom and indifference of "Ol' Man River", who doesn't seem to care what the world's troubles are, but "jes' keeps rollin' along". Magnolia finds Julie inside and announces that she's in love. Julie cautions her that this stranger could be just a "no-account river fellow". Magnolia says that if she found out he was "no-account", she'd stop loving him. Julie warns her that it's not that easy to stop loving someone, singing "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man".

During the rehearsal for that evening, Julie and Steve learn that the town sheriff is coming to arrest them. Steve takes out a pocket knife and makes a cut on the back of Julie's hand, sucking the blood and swallowing it. Pete returns with the sheriff, who insists that the show cannot proceed, because Julie is a mulatto married to a white man. Julie admits that she is a mulatto, or mixed-race person, but Steve claims that he also has ”black blood” in him. The troupe backs him up. The couple have escaped the charge of miscegenation, but they have to leave the show boat anyway; identified as "blacks," they are not acceptable as actors for the segregated white audience. Cap'n Andy fires Pete, but in spite of his sympathy for Julie and Steve, he cannot violate the law for them.

Gaylord Ravenal returns and asks for passage on the boat. Andy hires him as the new leading man, and assigns his daughter Magnolia as the new leading lady, over her mother's objections. As Magnolia and Ravenal begin to rehearse their roles, they kiss for the first time (infuriating Parthy), Weeks later, Magnolia and Ravenal have been a hit with the crowds and have fallen in love. He proposes and she accepts. They make plans to marry the next day while Parthy, who disapproves, is out of town. Parthy has discovered that Ravenal once killed a man, and arrives with the Sheriff to interrupt the wedding festivities. The group learns that Ravenal was acquitted of murder. Cap'n Andy calls Parthy "narrow-minded" and defends Ravenal by announcing that he also once killed a man. Parthy faints; the ceremony proceeds.

ACT 2

It is 1893. Gaylord and Magnolia have moved to Chicago, where they make a precarious living from Gaylord's gambling. By 1903, they have a daughter, Kim, and after years of varying income, they are broke and rent a room in a boarding house. Depressed over his inability to support his family, Gaylord abandons Magnolia and Kim. Frank and Ellie, two former actors from the showboat, learn that Magnolia is living in the rooms they want to rent. The old friends seek a singing job for Magnolia at the Trocadero, the club where they are doing a New Year's show. Julie is working there. She has fallen into drinking after having been abandoned by Steve. She tries out the new song "Bill." From her dressing-room, she hears Magnolia singing "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" for her audition. Julie secretly quits her job so that Magnolia can fill it, without learning of her sacrifice.

On New Year's Eve, Andy and Parthy go to Chicago for a surprise visit to Magnolia. Andy goes to the Trocadero without his wife, and sees Magnolia overcome with emotion and nearly booed off stage. He rallies the crowd by starting a sing-along of the standard "After the Ball". Magnolia goes on to become a great musical star.

More than 20 years pass. An aged Joe on the Cotton Blossom sings a reprise of "Ol' Man River". Cap'n Andy has a chance meeting with Ravenal and arranges his reunion with Magnolia. Andy knows that Magnolia is retiring and returning to the Cotton Blossom with Kim, who has become a Broadway star.Ravenal sings a reprise of "You Are Love" to the offstage Magnolia. Although he is uncertain about asking her to take him back, Magnolia, who has never stopped loving him, greets him warmly, and does. As the happy couple walks up the boat's gangplank, Joe and the cast sing the last verse of "Ol' Man River".

Click here for a preview video
of this production

Magnolia and Gaylord celebrate their wedding