{"product_id":"9780199968138","title":"Show Boat: Performing Race in an American Musical","description":"\u003cem\u003eShow Boat: Performing Race in an American Musical\u003c\/em\u003e tells the full story of the making and remaking of the most important musical in Broadway history. Drawing on exhaustive archival research and including much new information from early draft scripts and scores, this book reveals how Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome Kern created \u003cem\u003eShow Boat\u003c\/em\u003e in the crucible of the Jazz Age to fit the talents of the show's original 1927 cast. After showing how major figures such as Paul Robeson and Helen Morgan defined the content of the show, the book goes on to detail how \u003cem\u003eShow Boat\u003c\/em\u003e was altered by later directors, choreographers, and performers up to the end of the twentieth century. All the major New York productions are covered, as are five important London productions and four Hollywood versions.  Again and again, the story of \u003cem\u003eShow Boat\u003c\/em\u003e circles back to the power of performers to remake the show, winning appreciative audiences for over seven decades. Unlike most Broadway musicals, \u003cem\u003eShow Boat\u003c\/em\u003e put black and white performers side by side. This book is the first to take \u003cem\u003eShow Boat\u003c\/em\u003e's innovative interracial cast as the defining feature of the show. From its beginnings, \u003cem\u003eShow Boat\u003c\/em\u003e juxtaposed the talents of black and white performers and mixed the conventions of white-cast operetta and the black-cast musical. Bringing black and white onto the same stage -- revealing the mixed-race roots of musical comedy -- \u003cem\u003eShow Boat\u003c\/em\u003e stimulated creative artists and performers to renegotiate the color line as expressed in the American musical. This tremendous longevity allowed \u003cem\u003eShow Boat\u003c\/em\u003e to enter a creative dialogue with the full span of Broadway history. \u003cem\u003eShow Boat\u003c\/em\u003e's voyage through the twentieth century offers a vantage point on more than just the Broadway musical. It tells a complex tale of interracial encounter performed in popular music and dance on the national stage during a century of profound transformations.","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47077682741488,"sku":"9780199968138","price":25.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780199968138_p0.jpg?v=1763779680","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780199968138","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}