Read Online Enchanted Evenings:The Broadway Musical from 'Show Boat' to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber by Geoffrey Block - Free Book Online
Authors: Geoffrey Block
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discarded during the tryout months prior to the December 1927premiere was discovered in the Warner Brothers Warehouse in Secaucus, New Jersey. 5 By April 1983 the Houston Opera Company—which had in the late 1970s presented and recorded a
Porgy and Bess
that restored material cut from its pre-Broadway tryouts—arrived in New York with a version of
Show Boat
that used Robert Russell Bennett’s original orchestrations (rediscovered in 1978) and most of the previously discarded tryout material.
In 1988 John McGlinn (1953–2009), who had served as a music editor for the Houston Opera, conducted a recording of
Show Boat
on EMI/Angel that incorporated Bennett’s 1927 orchestrations and restored tryout material. McGlinn’s recording offered a significant amount of dialogue with musical underscoring. It even included an appendix containing longer versions of several scenes (shortened for the New York opening) and songs that Kern composed for the 1928 London engagement, the 1936 Universal film (with a screenplay by Hammerstein and new songs by Kern), and the New York revival in 1946. 6
Critics who attended the opening night on December 27, 1927, at the Ziegfeld sensed that
Show Boat
was not only a hit but a show of originality and significance. Robert Coleman, for example, described
Show Boat
in the
Daily Mirror
as “a work of genius” and a show which demonstrated the sad fact that “managers have not until now realized the tremendous possibilities of the musical comedy as an art form.” 7 Coleman’s review is also representative in its praise of the original run’s exceptional production values, including “fourteen glorious settings” and a superb cast. Although
Show Boat
, in contrast to other Ziegfeld productions, did not open with a lineup of scantily clad chorus girls, Coleman thought he saw “a chorus of 150 of the most beautiful girls ever glorified by Mr. Ziegfeld.” 8
Within a few days after its opening Percy Hammond wrote that
Show Boat
was “the most distinguished light opera of its generation,” and Brooks Atkinson described it as “one of those epochal works about which garrulous old men gabble for twenty-five years after the scenery has rattled off to the storehouse.” 9 Nearly every critic described Kern’s score either as his best or at least his recent best. Surveys of the American musical as far back as Cecil Smith’s
Musical Comedy in America
(1950) support these original assessments and single out
Show Boat
as the only musical of its time “to achieve a dramatic verisimilitude that seemed comparable to that of the speaking stage.” 10 Beginning in the late 1960s historians would almost invariably emphasize
Show Boat
’s unprecedented integration of music and drama, its three-dimensional characters, and its bold and serious subject matter, including miscegenation and unhappy marriages.
Although critics for the most part found silver linings nearly everywhere, they also freely voiced their discontent with one aspect of the work:the libretto.
Show Boat
might give the highly respected (albeit somewhat curmudgeonly) critic George Jean Nathan “a welcome holiday from the usual grumbling,” but most critics felt that the libretto, while vastly superior to other books of the time, did not demonstrate the same perfection as Jerome Kern’s music and Florenz Ziegfeld’s production. 11 In particular, critics voiced their displeasure with the final scene. Robert Garland, who described
Show Boat
as “an American masterpiece,” noted some “faltering, like many another offering, only when it approaches the end,” and Alexander Woollcott wrote that “until the last scene, when it all goes gaudy and empty and routine, it is a fine and distinguished achievement.” 12
More recent historians continued to view
Show Boat
as a refreshing but flawed departure from other shows of its day. Richard Traubner, for example, who praised
Show Boat
as “the greatest of all American operettas,” attributed
Porgy and Bess
that restored material cut from its pre-Broadway tryouts—arrived in New York with a version of
Show Boat
that used Robert Russell Bennett’s original orchestrations (rediscovered in 1978) and most of the previously discarded tryout material.
In 1988 John McGlinn (1953–2009), who had served as a music editor for the Houston Opera, conducted a recording of
Show Boat
on EMI/Angel that incorporated Bennett’s 1927 orchestrations and restored tryout material. McGlinn’s recording offered a significant amount of dialogue with musical underscoring. It even included an appendix containing longer versions of several scenes (shortened for the New York opening) and songs that Kern composed for the 1928 London engagement, the 1936 Universal film (with a screenplay by Hammerstein and new songs by Kern), and the New York revival in 1946. 6
Critics who attended the opening night on December 27, 1927, at the Ziegfeld sensed that
Show Boat
was not only a hit but a show of originality and significance. Robert Coleman, for example, described
Show Boat
in the
Daily Mirror
as “a work of genius” and a show which demonstrated the sad fact that “managers have not until now realized the tremendous possibilities of the musical comedy as an art form.” 7 Coleman’s review is also representative in its praise of the original run’s exceptional production values, including “fourteen glorious settings” and a superb cast. Although
Show Boat
, in contrast to other Ziegfeld productions, did not open with a lineup of scantily clad chorus girls, Coleman thought he saw “a chorus of 150 of the most beautiful girls ever glorified by Mr. Ziegfeld.” 8
Within a few days after its opening Percy Hammond wrote that
Show Boat
was “the most distinguished light opera of its generation,” and Brooks Atkinson described it as “one of those epochal works about which garrulous old men gabble for twenty-five years after the scenery has rattled off to the storehouse.” 9 Nearly every critic described Kern’s score either as his best or at least his recent best. Surveys of the American musical as far back as Cecil Smith’s
Musical Comedy in America
(1950) support these original assessments and single out
Show Boat
as the only musical of its time “to achieve a dramatic verisimilitude that seemed comparable to that of the speaking stage.” 10 Beginning in the late 1960s historians would almost invariably emphasize
Show Boat
’s unprecedented integration of music and drama, its three-dimensional characters, and its bold and serious subject matter, including miscegenation and unhappy marriages.
Although critics for the most part found silver linings nearly everywhere, they also freely voiced their discontent with one aspect of the work:the libretto.
Show Boat
might give the highly respected (albeit somewhat curmudgeonly) critic George Jean Nathan “a welcome holiday from the usual grumbling,” but most critics felt that the libretto, while vastly superior to other books of the time, did not demonstrate the same perfection as Jerome Kern’s music and Florenz Ziegfeld’s production. 11 In particular, critics voiced their displeasure with the final scene. Robert Garland, who described
Show Boat
as “an American masterpiece,” noted some “faltering, like many another offering, only when it approaches the end,” and Alexander Woollcott wrote that “until the last scene, when it all goes gaudy and empty and routine, it is a fine and distinguished achievement.” 12
More recent historians continued to view
Show Boat
as a refreshing but flawed departure from other shows of its day. Richard Traubner, for example, who praised
Show Boat
as “the greatest of all American operettas,” attributed
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