Show Boat, from 1927, was a massive spectacle with large sets and scores of performers in the company. It will take some creative thinking to fit the Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II classic (based on the novel by Edna Ferber) into the the jewelbox Goodspeed Opera House, which was built in 1876, around the time Show Boat's story begins.
It's thought that Goodspeed will stage Harold Prince's Tony Award-winning 1994 revision of the show. Performances will play July 1-Sept. 11.
Show Boat broke ground by mixing serious issues (racism, spousal abandonment) with soaring show tunes ("Why Do I Love You?," "You Are Love"), existing popular songs ("After the Ball," "Bill," "Goodbye, My Lady Love") and metaphor-rich songs that painted a picture of the painful social strata of the black and white characters ("Mis'ry's Comin' Aroun'," "Old Man River," "Can't Help Loving That Man of Mine"). The musical follows the friends, family, performers and workers who are attached to a Mississippi River show boat circa 1880-1927.
My One and Only, the 1983 vehicle for Tommy Tune and Twiggy, uses songs from the catalog of George and Ira Gershwin to tell the story of an aviator. The libretto is by Timothy S. Mayer and Peter Stone. It will open the Goodspeed season April 15-June 25, 2011.
City of Angels — the musical comedy that tells the dual tale of a mystery writer selling his soul in Hollywood, and his fictional hero solving a case — will play Sept. 23-Nov. 27. The Tony Award-winning Best Musical is by composer Cy Coleman, lyricist David Zippel and librettist Larry Gelbart. No directors or cast members were announced. For more information about Goodspeed Musicals, visit www.goodspeed.org.
