"Show Boat" (The Original) Trivia Quiz

Answer: Edna Ferber

Ferber first heard about show boats in August of 1924 when she was commiserating with some of her colleagues after the unsuccessful pre-Broadway opening of her play "Old Man Minick". Her friend, veteran producer Winthrop Ames, jokingly said that for his next show he would eschew out of town tryouts and would rent a showboat and play the river towns. Ferber was fascinated and decided to make this the subject of her next book.

Answer: Jerome Kern

Kern read the book and excitedly asked drama critic Alexander Woolcott, a mutual friend of his and Ferber's, to arrange an introduction.

Answer: False

According to the contemporary evidence, Ziegfeld seemed to immediately sense the great potential of the show and was anxious to produce it. However, he would later have some misgivings and became impatient with the slow pace of the show's creation.

Answer: About 40 years

According to the libretto, the first scene takes place on the Natchez levee about 1890. The final scene explicitly takes place in 1927 (there is a posted announcemen of Lindbergh's arrival in Mexico City). The book covers a longer period of time - from Magnolia's childhood to about her early sixties.

Answer: Ol' Man River

For some reason, Ziegfeld seems to have violently disliked this song and, according to his secretary, would curse under his breath while it was being sung in rehearsals. He seems to have changed his mind later, when it became wildly popular.

Answer: False

Although Robeson was the first choice for this role, he was unavailable at the time and only performed it later in the 1930's revival (and film). The role of Joe was created by Jules Bledsoe.

Answer: Charles Winninger

Winninger was a veteran stage, screen ("Three Smart Girls", "Nothing Sacred", "State Fair"), and later television star who had started at the age of nine appearing in his family's vaudeville act. Ironically, one of their appearances was at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, which is the setting for Act Two, scene 1 of "Show Boat".

Answer: Just before the "Miscegenation Scene"

"Misery's Comin' Around" is a song of foreboding; at one point Julie joins in, but soon begs the others to stop singing it. It sets the mood for the scene that follows. A segment of it is reprised after Julie and Steve leave the stage to gather their belongings.

Answer: False

The lyrics to "Bill" are by both Wodehouse and Hammerstein. Wodehouse ("Jeeves and Wooster") had written lyrics to a song called "My Bill" which was dropped from an earlier Kern show. For "Show Boat", Kern and Hammerstein decided that a reworked version of the song would work well sung by Julie in the Trocadero rehearsal scene. Hammerstein retained some of Wodehouse's lyrics, but wrote his own version which is significantly different from the original.

Answer: He killed a man (supposedly in self-defense).

At the end of Act One, we find out from Parthy Ann (along with Pete and Sheriff Vallon) that the reason Ravanel cannot stay more than 24 hours in any one location is that he killed a man, albeit in self defense. Magnolia is about to marry Ravanel at this point; the revelation, strangely, does not seem to phase either her or her father. Parthy, however, faints when it is revealed that they are getting married.

Answer: True

They are short ones (and two are reprises); the first is "Where's the Mate for Me", which leads into "Make Believe". The second is "Til Good Luck Comes My Way", which establishes Ravanel's total addiction to gambling ("While I've a heart and a brain and my ebony cane, I can borrow/ until the day when good luck will come my way").

He sings "Make Believe" to Kim in the "Convent Scene" (Act Two, scene 3), and reprises "You Are Love", in the penultimate scene of Act Two.

Answer: True

This number is included in the appendex of the 1988 EMI recording of the original score conducted by John McGlinn, and it has to be heard to be believed (imagine Magnolia singing lines like "Reckless maid is she who scorns to fear/ The Creole and his song/ For though she would repel the bold cavalier/ Her lips will yield e're long"!).

It was actually fairly typical of most Friml/Romberg style operetta duets of the period, but thank God it was replaced by "You Are Love".

Answer: It's Gettin' Hotter in the North

"It's Gettin Hotter in the North" uses the melody of Magnolia's quaint piano solo from Act One and turns it into a hot jazz number. Norma Terris, the original Magnolia/Kim, didn't like it and persuaded Kern to write a reprise of "Why Do I Love You" which would enable her to do her specialty - imitations of Beatrice Lillie, Ted Lewis, Ethel Barrymore, and others. "Dance Away the Night" was written for the 1928 London production. "Nobody Else but Me", the last song Kern would ever write, was written especially for Jan Clayton (famous for creating Julie Jordan in "Carousel") in the 1946 revival.

Answer: True

Although Kern had written an opening chorus for this scene, it was not performed in the original production. The other music in the scene is an "Apache Dance" (adapted from Offenbach), "Goodbye, My Lady Love" (words and music by Joseph E. Howard), and "After the Ball (words and music by Charles K. Harris).

These were popular numbers at the turn of the century and help to give an authentic atmosphere to the scene.

Answer: Four

After the first scene, he sings it under the dialogue following Julie and Steve's departure in the "Miscegenation Scene", again (with different lyrics) at the beginning of Act Two, scene 7, then once more, with the chorus, in the "Finale Ultimo" at the very end of the show. It is also heard being hummed by the chorus in Act One, scene 7, just before "You Are Love".

Answer: The Parson's Bride

The story concerns a young widow happily engaged to a country parson, until her "dead" ne'er-do-well husband returns.

Answer: Sweet Adeline

"Sweet Adeline", which details a vulnerable young actress's search for true love, included the songs "Don't Ever Leave Me", "Here I Am", "Poor Wet Fish", and "Some Girl is on You Mind", and the classic "Why Was I Born", which, along with "Bill" and "Can't Help Lovin' That Man" became one of Morgan's signature numbers.

Answer: I Would Like to Play a Lover's Part

The number depicts a group of young people mooning over the posted pictures of the "Cotton Blossom"'s new stars (Gay and Magnolia).

Answer: Edna May Oliver

Oliver was an old hand at playing uptight, straightlaced characters like Parthy (remember her as Lady Catherine in "Pride and Prejudice", Aunt Betsy Trotwood in "David Copperfield", and Miss Pross in "A Tale of Two Cities"?). She and the feisty Winninger must have been a memorable combination.

Unfortunately, she opted out of recreating the role for the 1936 film version, having been simultaneously offered the dream role of the Nurse in "Romeo and Juliet" (with Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer), so we'll never know just how memorable.

Other notable Parthys have been the acidulous Helen Westley (Oliver's replacement in the film), Nancy Kulp ("Miss Hathaway" from "The Beverly Hillbillies") on the 1988 EMI recording, Elaine Stritch (in the 1991 Broadway revival by Hal Prince), and those two "witches", Margaret Hamilton (in the 1960's Lincoln Center production) and Agnes Moorehead (in the 1951 film version).

Answer: Norma Terris (Magnolia)

In the film, Irene Dunne (who played Magnolia onstage in Ziegfeld's 1930's revival of "Show Boat") replaced Norma Terris, Allan Jones (father of Jack Jones and the juvenile lead in "A Night at the Opera")replaced Howard Marsh, Helen Westley replaced Edna May Oliver, Paul Robeson replaced Jules Bledsoe, Hattie McDaniel replaced Tess Gardella, and Queenie Smith (Sammy White's second wife) replaced Eva Puck. Francis X Mahoney, a.k.a. Rubberface Johnson, reprised his role as Cap'n Andy's stagehand (also called "Rubberface").

The film was directed by James Whale, best known for the classic 1931 film version of "Frankenstein" starring Boris Karloff and its sequel "The Bride of Frankenstein" starring Elsa Lanchester. Whale was the subject of the 1998 film "Gods and Monsters" starring Ian McKellan, based on Christopher Bram's novel "The Father of Frankenstein".

Answer: Ravanel leaves Magnolia halfway through the song to go gambling.

The song is preceded by a scene between Magnolia and Parthy in which we learn the Magnolia has not yet told her mother what Ravanel's "profession" is. Later, Ravanel returns and announces that he has had a winning streak and is taking his party out on the town (Magnolia, however, must return home to look after baby Kim). Magnolia, clearly still in what we now call "denial", begins this rapturous duet with her husband which, however, they never finish (the chorus picks up after Ravanel leaves, then Magnolia dances off and the song is concluded by Cap'n Andy, who sings it to Parthy.).

In the original production, Ravanel was seen during the following "Dahomey" number in the company of several young lovelies.

Answer: Can't Help Lovin' That Man

She sings the song Julie taught her. Coincidentally, Julie, now a famous, but down-and-out chanteuse, hears her and, sensing that she must desparately need the job, sends word to the manager that she is "going off on a tear" (a drinking spree), so the manager will hire Magnolia.

Answer: 527 performances

An impressive run for the time.

Answer: Cap'n Andy and Queenie

Cap'n Andy performs his Ballyhoo in the first scene to rally the townsfolk to see the show. In scene 5, when Andy complains to Queenie tha they haven't sold any balcony seats, Queenie tells him that he doesn't know how to sell to "her" people and performs an uproarious ballyhoo of her own which sells out the balcony seats.

Answer: Miles Kreuger

I would be remiss if I did not mention Kreuger's invaluable 1977 book "Show Boat" the Story of a Classic American Musical", a gold mine of information about the show (history, various productions, stage versions, movie versions, trivia, etc.). Kreuger also wrote the introduction to the libretto of the 1988 EMI recording of the complete original score, conducted by John McGlinn, which includes a fascinating interview with Goldie Stanton Clough, Ziegfeld's secretary.