Showboat Theatre Analysis

Showboat is an important show in theatre history. The show is about a young woman named Magnolia who dreams of becoming an actress. In the beginning of the show she lives on the boat named “the cotton blossom” alongside her father, Captain Andy, who is the owner of the ship. When A former performer, Julie, gets sent off the boat for miscegenation, Magnolia gets to fulfill her dream of being an actress. She soon meets another man named Gaylord and falls in love with him. A six years later, Magnolia and Gaylord are off of the ship and living in Chicago with their new child named Kim. Magnolia is upset because Marrying Gaylord isn’t at all what she thought it would be. They make an unstable living off of the atrocious habit of gambling that Gaylord

First off, The Musical Showboat had its first show in 1927 (Gernard). Before this production, there were not any shows that included a dramatically controversial plot. Shows were done simply as entertainment and therefore were all light-hearted, comedic shows (Gernard). When the public found out about the show “showboat” that was originally based on the novel by Edna Ferber was becoming a musical, it was a show that everyone had to see. This was the first musical with a realistic plot and did not have to do with only heavy operettas that dominated Broadway (Gernard). “The characters were far more three-dimensional and realistic, and the integration of music and plot was far more skillfully maneuvered.” (Gernard). One of the controversial topics of the show was unhappy marriages. The second topic of the show is miscegenation and race relations. During the 1920’s, America was still segregated and more racist than ever. There were race riots, lynching, and the unnecessary beatings of black people across the nation (Black & White). No playwright would ever dare to write a