Industry Reviews
"A fascinating look at how Show Boat helped shape the American musical form and the significant role it continues to play in our conversation about race. Todd Decker has compiled an exhaustive, engaging, and immensely readable cultural history that resonates with the same vibrant emotional impact of the musical itself." --Susan Stroman, Director & Choreographer
"Traveling through seemingly familiar territory, one makes startling new discoveries on every page about American music, theater, identity, and racial history. Decker demonstrates forcefully and conclusively why Show Boat was and remains the 'most important [American] musical ever made.'" --Thomas L. Riis, Director, American Music Research Center, University of Colorado at Boulder
"Todd Decker opens a wide window on the extraordinary cultural reach of Show Boat, with special focus on its racial complexities. For Decker, Show Boat is not a fixed text but rather a fascinating and fluid performance object that shifts with the social codes and commercial demands of its many eras." --Carol J. Oja, Professor, Harvard University, and author of Making Music Modern: New York in the 1920s
"A well written, thoroughly researched and cogently presented new study on one of the most studied and, for that matter, most deserving of study musicals of the twentieth century." --Brad Hathaway - Theater Shelf
"An excellent overview of all aspects of the show...Decker demonstrates a fine command of sources, furnishes good documentation, and includes some photos, illustrations, and
musical examples...Recommended." --Choice
"Decker offers a persuasive argument for the continued relevance of this classic musical, [demonstrating] the productive potential for historiographies of American musical theatre written across rather than 'along divided racial lines.'" --Theatre Journal
"[A] fascinating read about one of the true classics of the American stage." --Studies in Musical Theatre
"...There is a great deal to ponder in it." --JAMS
"Show Boat's voyage through the twentieth century offers a vantage point on more than just the Broadway musical. It tells a complex tale of interracial encounter performed in popular music and dance on the national stage during a century of profound transformations."--Broadway World
"Decker has woven many excellent historical threads together to form a unified narrative concerning race, both within and surrounding Show Boat. The importance of Robeson to the show and the importance of the character (Joe) and his music to Robeson's life are deftly considered here. As Decker explains, there is no question that race was far more important to the musical than it was to the book, and that the performance of the show has reflected that
emphasis more and more throughout the decades. Another important contribution
is to show where, exactly, performative elements (such as Andy's fiddle playing)
come from. There are too few performance-based histories out there, especially
for musical theater, and Decker's represents an excellent model for this type of
approach." -- Journal of the Society for American Music
