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Show Boat is the perfect showcase for the talented voices of Cape Town Opera – many of whom have visited the UK on previous tours of Porgy & Bess and Mandela Trilogy. Based on the novel by Edna Ferber, Show Boat is one of the first American musicals ever written. Created in 1927 with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, it tells the story from the old American South, rich with nostalgia, humour, love stories and well loved melodies such as Ol’ Man River and Can’t Help Lovin Dat Man. The story follows the lives of the performers, stagehands, and dock workers on the Cotton Blossom, a Mississippi River Show Boat, over a forty year period from 1887 to 1927. As a production Show Boat, which premiered on Broadway in 1927, has all the glamour and flourish of a big family musical but with a story that highlights the real life of people at that time, including the racial tensions that they faced. The rarely performed production reflects the situation of South Africa’s past whilst highlighting through Cape Town Opera’s talents, the bright future ahead.
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