Today is David’s birthday so last night we had two on the aisle at Carnegie Hall for a one-time concert performance of Show Boat, Jerome Kern’s groundbreaking 1927 musical about "life on the Mississippi." I’m sure David will have more to say about it later.
We were among a classy crowd; the performance was the Hall’s benefit for itself and one could have pre-show cocktails and dinner for a ticket price of $2,500. We passed on those extras (but did have a glass of champagne (me) and a martini (guess who?) and a couple of lemon-bars during the intermission while standing beside Alec Baldwin).
The stage was set with a full orchestra and behind it, the chorus, which, at the beginning of the show, was segregated – blacks on the right, whites on the left. By the end of the show, through imaginative stage direction, the chorus was fully integrated, a hopeful reflection of the progress made during the time period of the show. The lead singers lined the front of the stage and despite the lack of scenery and costume changes, the story comes vividly alive through Kern’s lush score and Oscar Hammerstein’s lyrics. The tragedy of Show Boat is the ruination of one family on the Cotton Blossom because of miscegenation laws and another because of gambling. Show Boat — set just a few decades after the civil war — was one of the first (maybe it was the first – David?), great populist entertainments to tackle racism and this country’s malevolent history.
I bought my first stereo system just before leaving home for college and my first LP (yes, vinyl) was The Essential Paul Robeson. Every year, on Passover, I listen to Ole Man River and have a good cry. It was no different for me last night. Is there anyone who doesn’t at least tear up when the full chorus joins in?
— sdh