Show Boat, 1927

The run closed May 4, 1929

Opened

December 27, 1927

Closed

May 4, 1929

Performances

572

Previews

Unknown

Theatre

Ziegfeld Theatre

Of the 2,149 productions we hold that opened in the 1920s and carry a performance count, this is the 13th longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.

Other stagings of Show Boat 11 more that season

Who was in it36 named

Helen Morgan1900–1941

C

Charles Winninger

Jules Bledsoe1897–1943

Norma Terris1904–1989

H

Howard Marsh1888–1969

Edna May Oliver1883–1942

Eva Puck1892–1979

Sammy White1894–1960

Tess Gardella1894–1950

C

Charles Ellis

F

Francis X. Mahoney

A

Alan Campbell

J

J. Louis Johnson

Juanita Hall1901–1968

Bert Chapman
Laura Clairon
Jack Daley
Ted Daniels
Dorothy Denese
Robert Farley
Estelle Floyd
Thomas Gunn
Annette Harding
Annie Hart
Aunt Jemima
Tana Kamp
Dagmar Oakland
Mildred Schewenke
Eleanor Shaw
Phil Sheridan
Jack Wynn
Helen Chandler
Peggy Green
Hazel Jennings
Rose Mariella
June Maye

14 of these 36 names have a person record behind them and link to one. The other 22 are set from the identifier in the cast list, which is a slug of the name, so hyphens and full stops are lost and a few come out wrong. We hold nothing else about them. Nobody here is matched to a character: the cast list records who was in the company and not what they played.

Creative team

Director

Zeke Colvan

Choreographer

Sammy Lee

Producer

Florenz Ziegfeld

A producer is one string on this record, however many people or companies it names. Directors and choreographers are held both as text and as identifiers; where an identifier exists the name links to a page.

Recordings 20 held for the work

None of these is attributed to this staging. They are filed against Show Boat, and nothing says which production any of them documents. Closing that join is the point of this catalogue and it is not closed yet.

Around this production

Producer Florenz Ziegfeld hated the serious subject matter and tried to talk Hammerstein out of the project, fearing audiences would reject a musical dealing with racism and miscegenation.

• Through the influence of Kern and Hammerstein’s Show Boat, Broadway’s first serious attempt at a modern musical play, creators of musicals began showing greater concern for the stories and the way music and lyrics augmented and embellished them. Broadway Musicals Show By Show Seventh Edition Stanley Green Cary Ginell, p. 11
• Another hopeful sign is the number of opera companies that have added musical theatre works to their repertoires. Not only does this help break down artificial barriers, it also creates new audiences for such notable examples as the Kern-Hammerstein Show Boat , the Gershwin-Heyward Porgy and Bess , the Rodgers-Hammerst… Broadway Musicals Show By Show Seventh Edition Stanley Green Cary Ginell, p. 13
• Because of their admiration for Helen Morgan’s performance in Show Boat, Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein collaborated on a nostalgic musical designed as a vehicle to show off the singer’s talents. Broadway Musicals Show By Show Seventh Edition Stanley Green Cary Ginell, p. 74
• The original production opened at the Ziegfeld Theatre on December 27, 1927, for 572 performances; a 1932 revival played for 180 showings; and a slightly revised 1946 Broadway revival ran for 418 performances and included a new song (the last Kern ever wrote, the charming “Nobody Else But Me”); Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals the Dan Dietz, p. 385
• were two Broadway revivals in 1983 (73 performances) and 1994 (949 performances). The latter was perhaps the most definitive Show Boat seen since the original production, and included the deleted “Mis’ry’s Comin’ ’Round,” which had previously been heard just one time, at the musical’s first tryout performance at the Na… Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals the Dan Dietz, p. 386

Passages naming this production, found by keyword across 178 books. Where it turns up in the literature, not curated notes about it.

What this page does not know

• No character names. We can say who was in the company and not who they played.
• Which of the 20 recordings of Show Boat document this run, if any.
• Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.