ABSTRACT
By the mid-1920s, there were several figures in American musical theater who took an explicit stand in favor of integrated shows. The genre of Show Boat has been rather hotly debated among musical theater historians—Richard Traubner and Gerald Bordman unabashedly included it in their studies of operettas, while Ethan Mordden flatly maintains, "Show Boat isn't an operetta". Nevertheless, Jerome Kern's and Oscar Hammerstein's first joint effort, Sunny, was as far removed in character from Show Boat as one could imagine. Show Boat had a much weightier theatrical book; it was based on a 1926 novel by Edna Ferber. Kern's tightly knit score for Show Boat uses a number of recurring motifs, subtly underscoring psychological peaks of the drama. "Ol' Man River" demonstrates the many layers of "musical meaning" that Kern's music adds to Hammerstein's prose. One of Kern's most promising post–Show Boat creations, Sweet Adeline, was also his next collaboration with Hammerstein.
