'Show Boat' docks at WMU for five performances
Nov. 4, 2000
KALAMAZOO -- "Show Boat," the Broadway musical featuring such classic melodies as "Ol' Man River," "It's Only Make Believe," and "Can't Help Lovin' that Man," comes to Miller Auditorium for five shows, Nov. 10-12.
Performances are Friday, Nov. 10, at 8 p.m.; Saturday, Nov. 11, at 2 and 8 p.m.; and Sunday, Nov. 12, at 2 and 7:30 p.m.
Tickets range from $25 to $45. Tickets can be purchased through the Miller Auditorium Ticket Office at 616 387-2300, toll free at 800 228-9858, or on the Web <www.millerauditorium.com>.
"Show Boat" spans a 40-year period, moving from the post-reconstruction Deep South in the 1880s to the world of industrialized Chicago, all the way through the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties.
The musical tells the story of the Cotton Blossom, a showboat on the mighty Mississippi River, its owner, Cap'n Andy Hawkes; his domineering wife, Parthy; and their lovely, innocent daughter, Magnolia. Magnolia falls in love with Gaylord Ravenal, a dashing riverboat gambler who joins the showboat troupe as an actor. "Show Boat" also tells the tragedy of Julie, a victim of oppressive racial laws.
"Show Boat" sounds as good today as it did in 1927, when the original production, produced by Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., opened in New York at the Ziegfeld Theatre.