Based on Edna Ferber’s classic American novel, 1927’s lyrically masterful Show Boat, by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, is the most-recorded musical of all time. The first show of its kind, Show Boat presented complex characters grappling with timely, realistic themes woven into a substantial plot. Spanning the years from 1880 to 1927, the epic narrative concerns the lives, loves and heartbreaks of three generations of show folk and their lifelong friends on the Mississippi, in Chicago and on Broadway.

“The history of the American Musical Theatre, quite simply, is divided into two eras: everything before Show Boat, and everything after Show Boat.” – Miles Kreuger