American beauty

Show Boat is still seaworthy

by Bill Rodriguez

Show Boat is more than entertainment, it's history. And not just musical theater's, but also America's. But the update coming to Providence Performing Arts Center November 25 through December 6 has gone out of its way to make the lessons sparkle as well as illuminate, as five 1995 Tony Awards attest.

First on Broadway in 1927, the Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome Kern production stood musical theater on its head. Instead of an incidental story line stringing together the song and dance that was the real show, an actual drama with fully developed characters grabbed audiences. Show Boat was the first musical, as we know it. It was also the first show for popular consumption that not only treated black life sympathetically but also didn't ignore racial oppression. "Old Man River" is an anguished song that depicts the black man's burden in literal terms of back-breaking labor, and through the mulatto character Julie the forbidden subject of miscegenation is treated with sympathy. Some 40 years are spanned, and the depiction of Mississippi River theater boat life is full of pain as well as song.

Harold Prince, who produced West Side Story and directed The Phantom of the Opera, has not been one to do revivals. But making the classic vivid was a worthy challenge, so he drew from previous stage and film versions to help the show come alive for a '90s audience. He took the frank tone from the controversial 1927 Broadway hit, which was watered down in the films. With the help of scenic designer Eugene Lee, he kept things visually exciting and constantly flowing, from (in the touring version) the towering 30-foot show boat itself to the swirl of 55 actors in 500 costumes.

Choreographer Susan Stroman was crucial to the intricate weaving of movement and music and story into a total effect. She was already a Tony winner, for Crazy for You, when she was tapped for Show Boat, whereupon she continued on to garner the Best Choreography award three years in a row. Stroman spoke recently by phone about her work on Show Boat.

Q: You took on the task of tinkering with an epic, a nearly sacred classic of musical theater. What contributions are you especially satisfied with?

A: It spans about 27 years, or more, of dance. And dance in America at that time really did change, from the turn of the century through the late '20s. So I was immersing myself in quite a bit of research. With Show Boat, because of its epic sweep I knew we were talking about not just one dance style but styles through the years. And when Hal Prince asked me to do this, he specifically wanted it to dance more than most Show Boats. In fact, it was Hal's idea to do the montages beginning the second act, and to dance them, to show the passage of time.

In my research I came upon the fact that it was the black community who invented the Charleston, which was like finding gold for me. Because here we are showing the passage of time, but wouldn't it be great to do it not just as a fashion show? So I used the conceit of buskers on the streets of Chicago. There's a one-man band that gets shooed away by a white doorman. And then we go to 1915 and two black tap dancers get shooed away by a white doorman. Then we go to 1922 and there are three black kids doing the Charleston, and a black doorman allows them to stay. A white crowd gathers around them and begins to enjoy it and pick up the steps and toss money to them. And in the very next scene, we have a big white Charleston and the steps echo what we saw the three black kids do.

Q: What do you stress in your choreography? How you see your style?

A: Well, I think in most regards it's very rhythmic. Even when I do something balletic, it's rhythmic ballet. In fact, rhythm is what grounds an actor when he's trying to portray a character, gives it sort of a heartbeat. Then because they deal mostly with characters, trying to make them believable when they dance, a lot of times I put into the choreography props that a dancer might use as an extension of their character. If I were doing a number with a reporter at an interview, you might have a pad and a pencil when you danced around.

Q: Is it difficult to control the audience's attention when there are so many performers dancing and milling about the stage?

A: Focus is a very important aspect when you're choreographing something of this magnitude, this size. I do A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden every year, and it's the same huge production. And where the focus is is key for the audience, because everyone just can't start dancing and the audience not know where to look. Within a choreographic story or sequence, the audience really has to follow the character or story through the dance.

Q: Which passage was most problematic for you or took the most time to get right?

A: The song that took the most time to get right was "Life Upon the Wicked Stage." An easy song like that. It's interesting when you think about it, once Ellie says, "Life upon the wicked stage ain't nothing for a girl," that's it! (laughs) The song is pretty much over. There's no more information we get. In fact, if you wrote a song like that today, it would probably never get into the show, because it doesn't propel the plot forward, really. But I was very lucky that the Hammerstein and Kern estates allowed me to change the music for the dance. So I had a great deal of freedom to develop all the music for the staging and choreography and the transitions. We went through about five incarnations of "Life Upon the Wicked Stage." But we came to a point where the most important thing was just about Ellie, just to show us Ellie's fun character. So I opened up the tune and put in a few comic touches. And at the end of the number she actually goes into the box office, which she had been trying to get into the last 15 minutes, so it feels like we're at least going toward.

Q: The show is so successful and audiences and awards committees have agreed that your choreography is the cat's pajamas but are you completely satisfied? If you were still in rehearsal, is there a number that you would still be working on?

A: I still visit the show all the time [on the road]. Every time I go I actually do work on it, I tweak it. Because the thing is, once you set a piece of choreography for the number, when new actors take over another thought will come to mind. They will stimulate your imagination to do something new or something different. I never do anything that will cause a huge domino effect within the number but, in fact, I always do change it a little bit. It never stops. It keeps evolving as actors change. With Frank and Ellie, sometimes there's a Frank who's an amazing acrobat or can turn five or six times in one spot, or he's more agile in one particular dance form. Ultimately, the goal is to make him look his best and not to be strapped into something that was developed for someone else.