In earlier productions act II opened with a crowd scene at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. Prince drops this scene along with its two songs (“At the Fair” and “In Dahomey”) and takes the duet between Magnolia and Ravenal, “Why Do I Love You?,” which was sandwiched between these songs, and gives it to the otherwise songless Parthy (Elaine Stritch) to sing to her granddaughter. Perhaps inspired by the 1936 film, which, unlike the stage version, shows the birth of Kim and Parthy rocking her, the effect of this change is enormous. With this one gesture, the shrewish, bigoted, and largely unsympathetic Parthy gains a humanity denied in all previous staged versions.
Musical Symbolism and Dramatic Meaning
In an article that appeared in Modern Music during Show Boat’s initial New York run, Robert Simon, a staff writer for the New Yorker and an opera librettist, wrote about what he perceived as Kern’s operatic predilections:
In Show Boat, Kern has an opportunity to make much of his dramatic gift. The action is accompanied by a great deal of incidental music—although “incidental” is a misleading trade term, for Kern’s music heightens immeasurably the emotional value of the situation.… Themes are quoted and even developed in almost Wagnerian fashion.43
Without further elaboration Simon suggests that Kern, like Wagner and several of the Broadway theater composers considered in this study, embraces his principal dramatic themes within a family of leitmotivs.44 All of these motives in Kern and Hammerstein’s “leit-opera” (a term perhaps coined by Simon) can be seen against the backdrop of the Mississippi, arguably the principal protagonist of the drama, much as the “folk” form the heart and center of Musorgsky’s Boris Godunov and Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.
In its purest form, closest to nature, like Mahler’s cuckoos in his First Symphony (1888), Kern has chosen to represent the river by the interval of a perfect fourth (the same interval that begins “Taps” and “Reveille”). As shown in Example 2.1a, “Fish got to swim [B-E], and birds got to fly” [E-B]), Kern uses this perfect fourth to connect the force of the natural world with the central human theme of the work embodied in “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man”: a woman in love is destined to love her man forever, even when he abandons her. The theme first appears early in the work as underscoring for the dialogue in which the unrequited lover Pete questions Queenie about how she acquired the brooch he had given Julie. Since audiences have not yet heard the words to this song, its meaning cannot be fully grasped during the exchange between Pete and Queenie that interrupts choruses of “Cotton Blossom.” But with Example 2.1a, the lyrical version of Julie’s song that whites would not know (it was sung by her African-American mother when Julie was a child), Kern and Hammerstein have successfully connected Queenie and Julie from the outset of the show. Julie’s identity as a mulatto otherwise remains undisclosed until two scenes later, when the meaning and impact of her association with Queenie’s race will be clarified.
Significantly, the five three-note Show Boat themes shown in Example 2.2 are sung by and to people–or in one case to an anthromorphized boat—who are part of the river and close to nature.45 The largest group of these “river” motives, nearly all introduced in Show Boat’s opening scene, consist of short musical figures, in which Kern fills in the perfect fourth of “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” with a single additional note. The four notes of the “Cotton Blossom” (Example 2.2a) when reversed provide the opening musical material for the main chorus of Joe’s “Ol’ Man River” (Example 2.2b) and, when reshuffled, Cap’n Andy’s theme (Example 2.2c).46 Additional transformations of these three notes encompassed within a perfect fourth can be found in the opening of “Queenie’s Ballyhoo” (Example 2.2d) and in a prominent segment of “Mis’ry’s Comin’ Aroun’” (Example 2.2e), included in all three published vocal scores. Although Kern never acknowledged a source, all of these themes might be traced, appropriately enough, to Dvořák’s contemporaneously composed “New World” Symphony (1893) (Example 2.2f).47
Example 2.1. “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man”
(a) original form
(b) transformation into a rag
Parthy and Sheriff Vallon also lead their lives along the river. In contrast to the characters who are in sympathy with this life force, however (Cap’n Andy and his Cotton Blossom, Joe, Queenie, the black laborers, and the women of any race who can’t help loving their men), Parthy and Vallon demonstrate their intrinsic antipathy to the river with subtle alterations that intrude on the simplicity and perfection of the perfect fourth. Audiences first meet Parthy and her theme (Example 2.3) after the climax of the song “Cotton Blossom” as underscoring to her yelling “Andy!!!! Drat that man, he’s never around!” moments before we hear Magnolia’s piano theme (Example 2.4).
Example 2.2. “River Family” of motives (transposed to the key of C Major)
(a) “Cotton Blossom”
(b) “Ol’ Man River”
(c) Cap’n Andy’s theme
(d) “Queenie’s Ballyhoo”
(e) “Mis’ry” theme
(f) from Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony
The first two notes of Parthy’s theme are a descending perfect fourth (D-A). But although Parthy may lead a life along the river, Cap’n Andy cannot and Kern will not make her drink in its physical beauty and spiritual richness. Consequently, after this perfect fourth, Kern has Parthy introduce a Bb, only a half-step up from the A but a giant step removed from the natural world of the river. The Bb and its following note G combine with the still-held D above to produce a G-minor triad, significantly the same chord that generates and supports Magnolia’s inhibition and lament later in the scene in section 4 of “Make Believe” (“Though the cold and brutal fact is”). By the second measure of her theme Parthy has moved below the descending fourth of the “Cotton Blossom” (to an F). In the third and fourth measures—a repetition of the first two but transposed up a sinister augmented fourth or tritone (D to G), the tense and dissonant interval that will figure so prominently in the music of Sporting Life (Porgy and Bess) and the Jets (West Side Story)—Parthy’s theme has moved radically from G minor to C minor (also a tritone) where it will remain for the duration of its remaining four measures. Perhaps in her musical resistance to the river Parthy is expressing a longing for her home state of Massachusetts, where “no decent body’d touch this show boat riffraff with a ten foot pole.”48
Example 2.3. Parthy’s theme
Once he has established musical equivalents for his characters and their world, Kern transforms and links these themes melodically and rhythmically to make his (and Hammerstein’s) dramatic points, as, for example, the transformation of Cap’n Andy’s theme into a wedding march at the end of act I and then into a processional and hymn in Kim’s convent school.49 Perhaps the clearest example of this technique can be observed in the evolution of “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man.” In the late 1880s the song is introduced in its lyrical form by Julie (Example 2.1a) followed immediately by an accelerated version sung by Queenie, Joe, the black chorus, and Magnolia (act I, scene 2); in the second act (scene 4) the song undergoes further transformation into a rag tune in 1904, when the Trocadero pianist Jake encourages Magnolia to sing a more animated modern version in order to get her act into the Trocadero production (Example 2.1b).
Example 2.4. Magnolia’s piano theme and “Where’s the Mate for Me?”
(a) Magnolia’s piano theme
(b) “Where’s the Mate for Me?” (B section, or release)
Magnolia’s piano theme (Example 2.4), one of the most ubiquitous themes of the show, will also undergo various transformations after its introduction in the opening scene. These include a reharmonized statement that underscores Cap’n Andy’s announcement of Magnolia’s wedding to Ravenal near the end of act I and a jazzy version, “It’s Getting Hotter in the North” (the original finale dropped after the Washington, D.C., tryouts), sung by Magnolia’s daughter, Kim, in 1927. It is also possible that Kern intended audiences to hear a musical connection
between Magnolia’s piano theme and the opening fragment of the verse to “Ol’ Man River”—a verse that not incidentally also begins the show opener, “Cotton Blossom”—when he decided to adopt it almost unchanged from The Beauty Prize (1923).50 In any event, Kern’s decision to join the second measure of Magnolia’s theme with the central theme of the all-knowing and timeless river is more than a detail. Not only does this touch provide another dramatically strong musical linkage, but it also bonds Ravenal to his future bride and all she represents. Her theme immediately enters his consciousness (even before they meet) and takes over the B section of his song, “Where’s the Mate for Me?”51
The vast network of thematic foreshadowings and reminiscences introduced here rarely fail to credibly unite the present with the past. One such example of Kern’s ability to make a dramatic point through a musical reference is his use of the “Mis’ry” theme (from the discarded song), which underscores Julie’s lecture to Magnolia about men, immediately after the impressionable younger woman has met Ravenal (at which point such a lecture is, of course, already too late). The presence of “Mis’ry’” here anticipates Julie’s misery two scenes later, when her partially black heritage is exposed and she and her blood partner Steve are exiled from the Cotton Blossom. It also prepares listeners for Julie’s and Magnolia’s eventual misery in act II when both will lose the men they love.52 A rhythmic connection that might also suggest a dramatic interpretation is the similarity between the prevalent long-short-short rhythm of this “Mis’ry” theme and the opening two measures of Ravenal’s “Where’s the Mate for Me?” (Example 2.5).53 In any event Ravenal’s musical remembrance of the waltz portion (section 2) of “Make Believe,” when he sings “I let fate decide if I walk or ride” in “Till Good Luck Comes My Way” (the latter unfortunately dropped from the 1946 revival), reveals more clearly than anything he could say or do that Ravenal’s own destiny is to love Magnolia even as he will one day abandon her.54
Ravenal’s Entrance and Meeting with Magnolia
An exceptionally powerful example of what Kern and Hammerstein were able to achieve with their second collaboration can be found in Show Boat’s expansive, intricate, and brilliantly conceived opening scene (act I, scene 1). After the opening chorus, “Cotton Blossom,” and Cap’n Andy’s “Ballyhoo,” we meet the river gambler Gaylord Ravenal, he meets his future bride Magnolia Hawks (Andy’s daughter), and the two fall in love at first sight. In addition to its classic status as the quintessential Broadway “boy meets girl” scene, Ravenal’s entrance and meeting with Magnolia offers two major songs, “Where’s the Mate for Me?” and “Make Believe,” as well as a continuous scene in which all actions and dialogue are underscored.
Ravenal’s meeting with Magnolia also provides an example of how perceptively Kern and Hammerstein understood the dramatic potential of Ferber’s narrative. In the novel Ravenal notices Magnolia on the deck of the Cotton Blossom at the same moment Cap’n Andy offers him the leading romantic role in their troupe. When Ravenal finds out that she will be his dramatic counterpart, he unhesitatingly accepts the challenge even though he has no experience (but of course he will not actually need to act). Ferber then tells her readers of Ravenal’s and Magnolia’s destiny, an “inevitable” and “cosmic course.”55 After describing this silent meeting, Ferber conspires with her character Parthy and does not allow the future lovers to speak to one another again for another twelve pages—and then not alone. Although Kern and Hammerstein made many revisions in this portion of scene 1 during the 1927 tryouts, only relatively minor changes differentiate the original New York and London books from the 1946 revival and the three published scores for this scene.56
Example 2.5. “Where’s the Mate for Me?” (opening and “fancy” harmonizations)
(a) “Who cares if my boat goes up stream?”
(b) “I drift along with my fancy”
(c) “I drift along with my fancy”
From the moment audiences first glimpse the future hero, Kern establishes the connection between Ravenal and his theme, capturing his aimlessness with a harmonically ambiguous accompaniment that refuses to find a tonal harbor. The theme continues to underscore Ellie May Chipley, the leading female comic with the Show Boat troupe, in her endeavor to attract Ravenal’s attention. Ellie drops her handkerchief, Ravenal picks it up—but not her cue—“hands it to her with courtesy,” and graciously acknowledges her gratitude before leaving the embarrassed comedian to fall back on her stage partner, Frank Schultz. After Sheriff Vallon’s appearance interrupts what would have been a harmonic resting point on D major, Kern foreshadows Ravenal’s song from scene 3, “Till Good Luck Comes My Way,” to underscore the remaining dialogue in which Vallon and Ravenal reflect on the drifter’s bachelorhood.
In the thrice-repeated opening phrase of “Where’s the Mate for Me?” the first shown in Example 2.5a (“Who cares if my boat goes up stream?” and two statements of “I drift along with my fancy”), Kern ingeniously varies the harmony of the final melodic note D (Example 2.5b and c). Its first appearance on the words “up stream” (the third measure) is paradoxically and perhaps unintentionally the lowest note of the phrase—after all, the point is that Ravenal does not care whether he is going upstream or downstream. Here Kern harmonizes the tonic or central key, D, with a conventional tonic D-major triad. Although Kern’s music initially preceded Hammerstein’s lyrics here and elsewhere in Show Boat, one nonetheless suspects that Kern may have occasionally altered his harmonies to correspond to the musical potential of Hammerstein’s lyrics. A major candidate for this creative scenario occurs in the third measure of the opening phrase of “Where’s the Mate?” (Example 2.5b), where Kern sets the word “fancy” with a fancy (and deceptive) resolution to a minor triad on the sixth degree of the scale.57 On the final statement of this phrase (Example 2.5c), moments before Ravenal hears Magnolia’s piano theme, Kern displays his fanciest chord, again on the word “fancy.”58 Ravenal is now as far adrift as Broadway harmony can take him.
To depict his speechlessness (or songlessness) upon seeing Magnolia, Ravenal stops abruptly before the music moves toward a conclusion on the expected tonal center. But “Where’s the Mate for Me?,” in contrast to most Broadway songs, remains incomplete. Instead, Ravenal’s unasked final musical question is answered by the mere presence of Magnolia. For such a special occasion Kern and Hammerstein were willing to deprive audiences of the opportunity to disturb dramatic continuity with applause. Even before Magnolia’s physical presence interrupts the final statement of the A section, however, Ravenal had already become subliminally aware of the answer to his question “Where’s the mate?” In what is clearly a case of love at first sound as well as first sight, Magnolia’s music (her piano theme shown in Example 2.4) becomes immediately and completely absorbed into the B section of Ravenal’s song.
In “Make Believe,” the ensuing duet between Magnolia and Ravenal (thankfully, in contrast to the Ferber novel they are allowed to speak and sing), Kern connects no less than four individual melodies and distinguishes each by metrical or key changes. As in Ravenal’s “Where’s the Mate for Me?” Kern’s purpose here is to provide a musical narrative that accurately reflects the psychological progression of a budding romance. By the end of the first section Ravenal has already admitted that his love for Magnolia is not a pretense (“For, to tell the truth, I do”). On the word “do” the music responds by becoming a waltz, which as far back as Franz Lehár’s The Merry Widow and Johann Strauss Jr.’s Die Fledermaus had come to represent the language of love for American as well as European audiences.59 Ravenal apologizes for “the words that betray my heart,” but Magnolia, who has in fact betrayed her heart by joining Ravenal’s waltz, is not quite ready to abandon the “game of just supposing” when she sings, “we only pretend.” Although Magnolia wants to pretend that Ravenal is only “playing a lover’s part,” Kern’s music belies Hammerstein’s words.
The third section of “Make Believe” leaves the tonic D m
ajor and modulates four notes above to the subdominant (G major) with another metrical change, this time from triple (waltz time) back to duple meter. Now Magnolia plays her game with a new level of flirtation accompanied by appropriate melodic playfulness (“The game of just supposing”). Following Ravenal’s reply to this flirtation, Magnolia introduces a fourth section in the parallel minor mode (G minor, foreshadowed in Parthy’s theme), a response to her sobering realization that “the cold and brutal fact is” they have never met before. But the pessimism of the minor mode disappears after only four measures when Magnolia states her rationale: since they are only playing a lover’s part, they “need not mind convention’s P’s and Q’s.” Clearly, imagination that “can banish all regret” can also banish minor modes.60
Magnolia, a bystander in the first section and half of the second, has now dominated all but eight measures since she first pointed out to Ravenal that they are only pretending, after all. Most significantly, Magnolia introduces the return of the central “Make Believe” melody more intensely than Ravenal’s opening gambit, and to match this intensity the music escalates a half-step higher (E major) from the original tonic D. When Ravenal joins her on the words “others find peace of mind in pretending,” it is by now unequivocally clear that Ravenal and Magnolia are not like these others. Their love is real.
Enchanted Evenings:The Broadway Musical from 'Show Boat' to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber Page 7