Edna Ferber’s tribute to the Mississippi River and the show boats that ran up and down it. This timeless tale of the “Cotton Blossom”, Cap’n Andy, his shrewd wife Parthy, their beautiful daughter Magnolia, and her remarkable daughter Kim as the story moves from the Reconstruction Era riverboat to Gilded Age Chicago to Roaring Twenties New York, and finally returns to the Mississippi River.
It was made famous on Broadway in 1927, when the legendary Jerome S. Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II collaborated on the musical. Since then Show Boat has become a beloved favorite, revived repeatedly to entertain generations through musical and movie renditions with haunting and lyrical songs such as “Old Man River” and “Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man of Mine”.