That was a strange year on broadway. The the only other major musical that opened was sunset boulevard. Most smaller shows delayed their openings to the next year because the spectacles that were Sunset Boulevard and Showboat were sure to win all the awards
i found it odd that there were only 2 best actress nominees that year. i mean sure, close was going to win by a mile that year but couldn't they have bothered to nominate elaine too? they loved the show after all.
So contrived, it is an embarrassment to the masterful creators, Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein who were ahead of their time in attempting to create an American musical with drama and comedic elements.
It's extraordinary how people make sweeping statements on RU-vid having seen a fuzzy clip. A bit like seeing a torn page from a novel and pronouncing on the literary merits of let's say Bleak House. The Harold Prince production which started In Toronto and then moved to Vancouver, and Los Angeles before Broadway and the West End had a stellar cast including the much missed Rebecca Luker who died tragically young last year. What Susan Stroman did with Harold Prince was co-ordinate the often jarring timelines in Showboat with linked sequences. The plot spans some 40 years after all. This sequence with added orchestrations showed Kim's transition from early 20th Century America to the Twenties, with gas lighting replaced by electricity and the spluttering of a radio. The production was a towering achievement and notable restored Misery's Comin Around having been cut by Florenz Ziegfeld it it's first outing.
@@williamgardiner2010 When I saw this production it was the first time that a production of Show Boat was totally satisfying from beginning to end. It was spectacular. Thanks for bringing it into sharper focus once again by your description.
