Theater News

Show Boat Staging Starring Vanessa Williams Will Be Presented by the New York Philharmonic

Lauren Worsham and Julian Ovenden will also be featured in the Kern and Hammerstein musical.

Vanessa Williams will star in the New York Philharmonic's production of Show Boat.
Vanessa Williams will star in the New York Philharmonic's production of Show Boat.
(© David Gordon)

The New York Philharmonic has announced plans to stage Kern & Hammerstein's Tony Award-winning musical Show Boat from November 5-8. Ted Sperling, winner of the 2005 Tony for Best Orchestrations (Light in the Piazza), will direct and conduct.

Broadway's Vanessa Williams (After Midnight), Lauren Worsham (A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder), and Julian Ovenden (Butley) have been announced to star as Julie, Magnolia, and Gaylord Ravenal, respectively. Based on the novel by Edna Ferber, Show Boat follows the 40-year story of the performers, stagehands, and dock workers who are the denizens of the Mississippi River show boat the Cotton Blossom.

Show Boat includes musical favorites like "Ol' Man River," "Make Believe," and "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man." Since its first production in 1927, the musical has been revived on Broadway six times — most recently in a Tony-winning 1994 revival.

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