Show/Boat: A River is a radical new imagining of the original classic from 1927. Target Margin Theater’s method of reconceptualizing theater classics for today is especially powerful in this adaptation, reflecting on the original’s historical contexts around race, class, labor and capitalism in America – as well as its legacy of breaking new ground: the original Show Boat was performed by the first racially integrated cast on Broadway, in a “musical play” that foregrounded racist violence and interracial relationships in early 20th century America, through the medium of a love story.
Show/Boat guides us to confront our past histories and use them to build something new, while vibrantly honoring the show’s legacy of theatricality and song.
RELATED EVENTS
RELATED EVENTS
GET THEE TO THE LIBRARY
GET THEE TO THE LIBRARY
Recommended readings to get you in gear for the show.
- Todd Decker, Show Boat: Performing Race in an American Musical (2013)
- Edna Ferber, Show Boat (1926)
- Laurence Maslon (editor), American Musicals, 1927-1949: The Complete Books & Lyrics of Eight Broadway Classics (2014)
- J. E. Smyth, Edna Ferber’s Hollywood: American Fictions of Gender, Race and History (2021)
- Winer, Laurie Winer, Oscar Hammerstein II and the Invention of the Musical (2023)
GET INTO IT
GET INTO IT
OFFICE HOURS
OFFICE HOURS
Target Margin director David Herskovits and NYU professor Kent Gash in conversation on the many iterations of Show Boat over the past 100 years.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
READ ALL ABOUT IT
The Rooted Adventure of Target Margin: 1001 Nights in Sunset Park
The Target Margin mission includes the promise that the company will “aggressively cast and staff [its] work with the broadest range of people. That means racial diversity has been a guiding principle from the start.”
A Family, Our Country, the Theatre: An Interview with David Herskovits
“Memory particularly has been the engine of a lot of my interest and my work in the theatre for some years now.”
“Show Boat” in the Archives of the NYT
“Show Boat” in the Archives of the NYT
Why ‘Show Boat’ Is America’s Most Enduring, Unstable Musical
A revival called “Show/Boat: A River” joins a history of reimagining the musical that goes back nearly a century, to its first performances.
REVIEW: Classic Musical With a Change in Focus
“Anyone looking for pure escapism had better look elsewhere; this Show Boat rides a river of deep disillusionment.”
THE SCREEN; A Bravo for Universal’s Splendid Film Edition of ‘Show Boat’
“We have reason to be grateful to Hollywood this morning, for it has restored to us Edna Ferber’s Mississippi River classic, Show Boat.”
SHOW BOAT’ PROVES FINE MUSICAL SHOW
“Play is Staged Lavishly, Story Adheres Closely to the Edna Ferber Novel of Floating Mississippi Theatre.”
