Reviews

Show Boat (Tour – Birmingham)

Cape Town Opera premiere ”Show Boat” in Birmingham ahead of a short UK tour.

Cape Town Opera in Show Boat
Cape Town Opera in Show Boat

Cape Town Opera visited Birmingham two years ago with their highly successful production of Porgy and Bess and this year they return with their adaptation of the Broadway musical, Show Boat. Once again the company have managed to revive a classic musical in an exciting and original production.

Show Boat, as director Janice Honeyman says in her director’s note, is a ‘musical which has the most telling reverberations for the South African situation’. The plot centres on events of a show boat company, who actually seem quite equal opportunistic for the late 1800s, but have still have to follow the strict segregation rules that some areas in the Deep South had at the time.

Some racial vocabulary that today we find uncomfortable is flung quite freely by some characters, but the shock doesn’t come from hearing the words, but by accepting that this was how life was before people took a stand.

Johan Engels has designed a beautiful and effective set. The focal point being platforms that represent the boat in all its many ways – as from the bow to the stage to the decks but can also be used for lots of other purposes. Huge moving bales for the workers to work on and move across flank the set and show the differences in society at the time.

Every performer is stunning in this production. Special recognition needs to go to the performers playing the parts of Joe (Otto Maidi) and Queenie (Nobuntu Mpahlaza), who caused an early peak in the production with their renditions of Ol’ Man River and Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man respectively. The two songs, one after another, were the highlights of the production with the deep rousing emotional Ol’ Man River flowing into the more lively spectacle of Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man and the many reprises throughout the evening were very welcome.

The duets between the characters Gaylord and Magnolia (Blake Fischer and Magdalene Minnaar) do tend to sound the same after a while, but are always performed with passion and integrity. Another stand out performer was Angela Kerrison, playing the mixed race performer Julie who suffers from the effects of the rules that segregation brings to the group.

As with many musicals written around the same era as Show Boat, there is a datedness to the content. However the production does try to keep suitable aspects relevant and the show is exciting to watch throughout. This is a phenomenal production and was highly deserving of the long and rapturous standing ovation at the end of the performance.

Show Boat continues at Birmingham Hippodrome until Sat 5 July.