“Show Boat”: Rolling Along in the 21st Century

Show Boat, a 1927 musical with a score by Jerome Kern, book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, based on Edna Ferber’s 1926 novel, is universally recognized by scholars of American theater and musical theater as a seminal text and a groundbreaking (and popular) addition to the Broadway canon.

The Skirball Center, under Jay Wegman’s leadership, is presenting a production, Show/Boat: A River, directed by David Herskovits for Target Margin Theater during January, 2025. The production at Skirball will be the first production of Show Boat since it has entered the public domain and therefore the first production that can be reinterpreted without any restrictions from the original rights holders. The musical was groundbreaking in its use of narrative, race, American culture, gender politics, and epic storytelling back in 1927; this course would explore its original production as a background to further interrogate its influence and its context in the 21st Century. Students would attend a late rehearsal (pre-dress) at Skirball, as well as the actual performance, allowing for artistic, critical, and practical observations on the process and the final product. Additionally, students will investigate film, stage, and popular recordings from/inspired by Show Boat.

Guest speakers will be part of the curriculum.

This section is open to all undergraduate students.

TO FIND THE COURSE IN ALBERT: Search under “January 2025” and then look for Open Arts Curriculum (Undergraduate) under Tisch School of the Arts. See NYU Bursar website for charges.

Laurence Maslon is an arts professor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, as well as associate chair of the Graduate Acting Program. He is the writer and coproducer of the American Masters documentary, Sammy Davis, Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me, broadcast on PBS in 2019, as well as the artistic director and writer of “Yes I Can: The Sammy Davis, Jr. Songbook” at the 92Y’s “Lyrics and Lyricists” series.   He is also the host and producer of the radio series, Broadway to Main Street on the local NPR-affiliate station WPPB-FM. The program is winner of the 2019 ASCAP Foundation/Deems Taylor Award for Radio Broadcast.  His most recent book is the companion volume to the Broadway phenomenon Come From Away, as well as an update third edition companion volume to the PBS series Broadway: The American Musical. His history of recorded music from Broadway, Broadway to Main Street: How Show Music Enchanted America, was published in 2018 by Oxford University Press.  He edited the two-volume set American Musicals (1927-1969) containing sixteen classic Broadway librettos, published by the Library of America in 2014 to national acclaim, as well as the Library of America’s Kaufman & Co., an anthology of Broadway comedies by George S. Kaufman. He wrote the American Masters documentary Richard Rodgers: The Sweetest Sounds in 2001 and with producer/director Michael Kantor, he cowrote the PBS series Make ‘Em Laugh (Emmy nomination) and two episodes of the Emmy-winning Broadway: The American Musical as well as its companion volume (third edition upcoming in fall 2019). He served on the nominating committee for the Tony Awards from 2007 to 2010.  He was written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Opera News, Stagebill, and American Theatre.