Cap'n Andy, played by Lenny Wolpe, sings "Captain Andy's… (Tanner Curtis, Hartford Courant)
July 10, 2011|By FRANK RIZZO, frizzo@courant.com, The Hartford Courant
"Show Boat," the 1927 musical which has seen multiple Broadway and screen productions, is the Queen Mary of epic musicals, with a large cast, sumptuous score and lavish settings, not the least of which calls for the arrival of the multi-story "Cotton Blossom" on stage.
So when Goodspeed Musicals announced last year it was going to mount a production of the landmark Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II show for its intimate Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam and tiny stage, the reaction for many was: How?
The show is, after all, not called "Row Boat."
PHOTOS: Show Boat
"We were never sure we could do the musical,"" says Michael Price, executive director of Goodspeed Musicals. "With [director] Rob Ruggiero and set designer Michael Schweikardt, we have found a way."
Price says "Show Boat" is one of the biggest productions the theater has undertaken ("1776" and "My One and Only" were also among its biggest endeavors, he says) with almost 40 actors and musicians on the payroll.
Price says his new actor-housing capabilities and state-of-the-art scene shop helped. Goodspeed also benefitted from having purchased years ago three sets of costumes from the musical's 1995 Toronto, Broadway and touring revival, designed by Florence Klotz.
Intimate Version
" 'Show Boat' has never been performed the same way twice," says Price, referring to the many revivals over the decades, many revised by the show's original creators. "There's so much material from the various versions, it's incredible."
Ruggiero chose to use the 1946 revival script, one of two versions the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization licenses. The other is a 1994 revival that was the last big hurrah for producer Garth Drabinsky that Harold Prince directed and Susan Stroman choreographed.
"None of that interested me anyway," says Ruggiero who directed "1776," "Camelot" and "Big River" at the East Haddam theater. "I'm proud that Goodspeed didn't encourage that. It has supported my story-focused approach, which centers on the show-biz family of the Mississippi River on the late 19th Century and early 20th Century show boat. I found it funny, moving and powerful, especially how that family stretches the lines of blood, race and class."
The Goodspeed production features Sarah Uriarte Berry, Ben Davis, Andrea Frierson, Karen Murphy, Lenny Wolpe and David Aron Damane. Michael O'Flaherty is music director. Noah Racey choreographs.
Songs include: "Make Believe," "Ol' Man River," "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man," "Life Upon the Wicked Stage," "You Are Love," "Why Do I Love You?" "Bill" and "After the Ball."
Ruggiero says he also was given permission (with the R & H Organization's approval) to include material from many of the show's stage productions and films. (There have also been a part-talkie film in 1929, as well as 1936 and 1951 movie versions, the former starring Paul Robeson, Allan Jones, Irene Dunne and Harttie McDaniel) and the latter, an MGM epic starring Ava Gardner, Howard Keel, Joe E. Brown, William Warfield and Marge and Gower Champion). A mini-version of "Show Boat" is also featured in 1946's "Til the Clouds Roll By," the bio-movie about composer Kern.
Many Changes
"There were lots of changes over the years," Ruggiero says of the work which is seen as America's first seriously themed musical play in contrast to the typical light operetta, musical comedy or "Follies"-type musical revues. "Songs went in, songs went out."
In total, there are approximately six hours of material for the show, which follows three generations of characters over 40 years at various locations. An acclaimed three-CD version that included all the musical material over the years was released in the '90s. "It was the best six-hour musical ever," jokes Ted Chapin, executive director of the R & H Organization who has a home in Chester and is on the Goodspeed board.
For Goodspeed's 25-actor production, Ruggiero trimmed superfluous and secondary characters, trimmed dialogue, eliminated crowd scenes and strengthened the African-American characters in the second act. The most dramatic change Ruggiero made is the opening of the second act. Because of the limits of the Goodspeed stage and the number of set changes called for in the beginning of that act was a challenge for the theater. Ruggiero created a three-song montage scene that follows the fortunes of two principal characters
Ruggeiro presented his version to Alice Hammerstein, 90-year-old daughter of the lyricist-book writer Oscar Hammerstein II and Julie Gilbert, the niece of Edna Ferber, who wrote the 1926 novel from which the musical is based.
"I believe this will be …one of the most intimate 'Show Boat's to date," says Ruggiero.
