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''Show Boat'' is a 1927 musical in two acts, with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. Based on Edna Ferber's bestselling novel of the same name, the musical follows the lives of the performers, stagehands, and dock workers on the ''Cotton Blossom'', a Mississippi River show boat, over forty years, from 1887 to 1927. Its themes include racial prejudice and tragic, enduring love. The musical contributed such classic songs as "Ol' Man River", "Make Believe", and "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man". The premiere of ''Show Boat'' on Broadway was a watershed moment in the history of American musicals. Compared to the trivial and unrealistic operettas, light musical comedies, and "Follies"-type musical revues that defined Broadway in the 1890s and early 20th century, ''Show Boat'' "was a radical departure in musical storytelling, marrying spectacle with seriousness". According to ''The Complete Book of Light Opera'': "Here we come to a completely new genre – the musical play as distinguished from musical comedy. Now... the play was the thing, and everything else was subservient to that play. Now... came complete integration of song, humor and production numbers into a single and inextricable artistic entity."〔("American Musical Theatre: An Introduction" ), theatrehistory.com, republished from ''The Complete Book of Light Opera''. Mark Lubbock. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1962, pp. 753–56, accessed December 3, 2008〕 The quality of the musical was recognized immediately by the critics, and ''Show Boat'' is frequently revived. Awards for Broadway shows did not exist in 1927 when the original production of the show premiered, nor in 1932, when its first revival was staged. Late 20th-century revivals of ''Show Boat'' have won both the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical (1995) and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival (1991).〔("Olivier Winners, 1991" ) olivierawards.com, accessed August 10, 2012〕 ==Background== In doing research for her proposed novel ''Show Boat'', writer Edna Ferber spent several weeks on the ''James Adams Floating Palace Theater'' in Bath, North Carolina, gathering material about a disappearing American entertainment venue, the river showboat. In a few weeks, she gained what she called a "treasure trove of show-boat material, human, touching, true". Jerome Kern was impressed by the novel and, hoping to adapt it as a musical, asked the critic Alexander Woollcott to introduce him to Ferber in October 1926. Woollcott introduced them that evening during the intermission of Kern's latest musical, ''Criss Cross''.〔Block, pp. 22–23〕 Ferber was at first shocked that anyone would want to adapt ''Show Boat'' as a musical. After being assured by Kern that he did not want to adapt it as the typical frivolous "girlie" show of the 1920s, she granted him and his collaborator Oscar Hammerstein II the rights to set her novel to music. After composing most of the first act songs, Kern and Hammerstein auditioned their material for producer Florenz Ziegfeld, thinking that he was the person to create the elaborate production they felt necessary for Ferber's sprawling work.〔Kantor and Maslon, pp. 112–19〕 Ziegfeld was impressed with the show and agreed to produce it, writing the next day, "This is the best musical comedy I have ever been fortunate to get a hold of; I am thrilled to produce it, this show is the opportunity of my life..."〔''Show Boat'', with its serious and dramatic nature, was considered an unusual choice for Ziegfeld, previously known mainly for revues such as the ''Ziegfeld Follies''. Though Ziegfeld anticipated opening his new theatre on Sixth Avenue with ''Show Boat'', the epic nature of the work required an unusually long gestation period and extensive changes during out-of-town tryouts. Impatient with Kern and Hammerstein and worried about their keeping too serious tone (he strongly disliked the songs ''Ol' Man River'' and ''Mis'ry's Comin' Around''), Ziegfeld decided to open his theatre in February 1927 with ''Rio Rita'', a musical by Kern's collaborator Guy Bolton. When ''Rio Rita'' proved to be a success, ''Show Boats Broadway opening was delayed until ''Rita'' could be moved to another theater.〔Bloom and Vlastnik, pp. 290–93〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Show Boat」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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