Chicago Escorts: Show Boat. Photo by Robert Kusel

Edna Ferber’s 1926 novel concerns three generations of a riverboat family, specifically three generations of women. Ferber had killed off her two principal men halfway through the book, Cap’n Andy Hawks who owns the show boat and Gaylord Ravenal, the handsome gambler who marries Andy’s daughter, Magnolia. In creating the 1927 musical, adapter/lyricist Oscar Hammerstein kept both men alive and eliminated Ravenal’s consorting with prostitutes. Having Ravenal abandon his wife and child (as in Ferber’s novel) was bleak enough for a musical comedy, along with a miscegenation subplot. Jerome Kern concurred, and poured his lyrical gifts into a dazzling score ranging from the iconic anthem “Ol’ Man River,” to the comic “Life Upon the Wicked Stage,” to the jazz-influenced “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man,” to the soaring “You Are Love.” Wisely, Lyric uses mostly (more than 80 percent) of the original 1927 orchestrations, which still are superb.

See the full article from “Windy City Times”