On Mon May 24, at MondayMay 24 2:12 PM, David W. Fenton wrote:
The major tweaks to the thing were explicitly described in the Playbill of the 1994 Broadway production (which I saw with my parents in 1995), and that production made a point of enhancing the racial inequality aspect of the story line, if I'm remembering correctly. The Wikipedia article is interesting, though, it seems to me, somewhat incomplete. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Show_Boat
Interesting article. I would like to read that Playbill that you mention, though, to really get it all and know what was changed. I remember the protests in Toronto about the separate black and white choruses and that even when set pieces were moved by hydraulics there were some black actors pushing and hauling on them too, and black actors were cleaning the stage and sweeping up ticker tape, etc. I thought it made an interesting dramatic point, but the protesters didn't.
One thing that is always worth a giggle to me in the Wikipedia article is the reference to African-Americans - in CANADA. I suppose the politically-correct thing is to refer to geography rather than to race, but the race IS the issue here, not the geography. I hear people referring to African-Americans when they obviously mean black, even when referring to actual Africans. It's not so much that I mind political correctness, I just don't like it when it replaces actual thought.
Christopher _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
