Eyewitness 1927: 'Show Boat' applauded by the Pittsburgh critics
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Pittsburgh theater critics knew they had experienced something unique when "Show Boat" dropped anchor at the Nixon Theater.
The groundbreaking musical, based on a best-selling novel by Edna Ferber, had music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein.
Neither Florence Fisher Parry, the Post-Gazette's reviewer, nor Karl B. Krug, her counterpart for The Pittsburgh Press, could find much of anything wrong with the preview performances. Pittsburgh was then a frequent stop during tryout tours for shows preparing for their Broadway openings.
"By order of the county commissioners, the Citizens' league and all the other official bodies that may happen to be officiating at the moment, Pittsburgh and Allegheny County playgoers in this week of Thanksgiving are ordered to drop to their knees and offer up their most fervid gratitude for Florenz Ziegfeld's 'Show Boat,' " Krug wrote on Nov. 22, 1927.
A breathless Parry that same day said the musical was "operetta and vaudeville and drama all heaped into one great avalanche of splendor -- an avalanche which bore down upon the gasping Nixon audience last night with a deep roar of conquest, sweeping before it all precedent in theatrical production and establishing a new, gigantic pace in entertainment."
"Show Boat" broke ground in multiple ways. Following the plot of the Ferber novel, it combined broad comedy with romance and drama. The plot includes what turns out to be an inter-racial love affair. The show had an integrated cast. In a score that contains many numbers still performed today, the best-known song, the show-stopper "Ol' Man River," was given to a black deckhand.
While the song and the role of Joe eventually came to be identified with actor and political activist Paul Robeson, the part was played on the tryout tour and in the Broadway opening by Jules Bledsoe. The Post-Gazette's Parry said he gave "the truly beautiful performance of the evening." Bledsoe, she wrote, "boosts the current stock of Negro talent with his unpremeditated skill."
First Published August 21, 2011 12:00 am
