'You and me, we sweat and strain': blacks in America and the musical Show Boat

The relationship between artists and their society is always a complex one. This is especially true of opera, music and other forms of theatre. Should the artist create a magical world that lets the audience escape? Or confront it with hard, gritty truths? And if the critique is too severe, will people come to see it?

All this brings us to a viewing of the musical Show Boat. The relevance of this to today's America is all too clear to anyone who watches with a critical eye, as we shall see in a moment. But first some background and some impressions.

Show Boat is an American musical based on the stage musical of the same name by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein. The version we commonly see was made in 1951. This was the third time a film had been made of the musical. The 1951 movie is the most sanitised and least confronting version. It was one of MGM's most popular musicals.

A viewer today sees a very fussy musical with a lot of frills and dross. An overall impression is that the musical (at least this version) is like a very big, rich cake. And deep inside the cake there is a very tart filling, perhaps like sour cherry, that makes you sit up in surprise.

The story is that of a riverboat and the adventures and romances of those who live on it. It's a showboat- a boat that travels up and down the river, with people who perform shows for townspeople who would normally see little live entertainment, for the setting is 1880s, 1890s and beyond. Remember that by this time the Civil War had finished, but hundreds of years of black slavery had left their mark and could not be erased.

The race theme emerges

We find ourselves on the bank of a river in a Mississippi town. A showboat is about to visit. There are numerous versions, and endless revisions, of the text, sometimes because of arguments about how to portray history. But the film retains something of the original: as the show starts, blacks are shown working in the fields. And in a clever way, the stage is set for racial tragedy. Thus after a rather slow start, with bits of romances, apparent nonsense, and ordinary songs, it seems that Julie is of mixed race. A jealous suitor, Pete the engineer, brings the sheriff of the town they are visiting onto the boat to arrest Julie and Steve. The charge is miscegenation, or mixed-race marriage. That was illegal in southern States. Meanwhile, Steve has hurriedly pricked Julie's finger and sucked some of her blood, so he can claim to be half-blooded, as she is. But as blacks were not allowed on the stage with whites, both must leave the showboat. We cut to Joe, a black man who is a labourer on the boat. And he sings 'Ol' Man River.' It's a harsh commentary on the unfairness of life. The original version was tougher:

Don't look up, and don't look down
You don't dast make the white boss frown

And later-

Let me go 'way from the Mississippi
Let me go 'way from de white man boss
Show me dat stream called de river Jordan
Dat's de ol' stream dat I long to cross

The river runs its course, and never stops. But for black people, only death will bring an end to the back-breaking work and brutality. There were numerous changes to the song made by various people. The word n****r understandably was changed, as it is blatantly racist. Later versions used the terms 'darkies' and then 'coloured folks'. ( I simply use the term 'blacks' in this article for simplicity and I mean no offence. ) The Paul Robeson version of the song in an earlier film version is much tougher than in the later one , and became justly famous. The effect of the song is to underline the unfairness of life in the southern US States, most of all for people who are black or mixed-race. There are other echoes of America's racist past in the show, such as the complaint from one of the actors that someone is acting like Simon Legree. He was the vicious white overseer who has Tom whipped to death in the well-known attack on slavery, Uncle Tom's Cabin.

It's significant that the romantic lead in the riverboat show appears dressed as an officer of the Confederacy. Kim, child of two key characters, later plays with a doll dressed as a Confederate officer, placed on bales of cotton. My suspicion is that this is meant to suggest that the Southerners watching the show are meant to be comforted by a rosy view of the South's horrific experience in the Civil War, similar to that of Gone with the Wind. Although the 1951 version loses some of the original punch, the gulf between whites and blacks, and the many injustices done before and after the Civil War, are still clear to a discerning viewer. At the end, the lovers kiss, the riverboat sails off, and the music swells to a climax. But the bales of cotton- the economic basis of slavery- are ever-present.

Relevance

So what is the relevance of the show today? In the 1951 version of the musical it's sad to observe the disappearance of many of the blacks who had featured in earlier versions. Studio executives felt Americans would not like Lena Horne as a heroine- she was too dark. But the movie is still powerful. The USA is in many ways a prisoner to its history. In the minds of many influential Americans, the US is still a country of backwoodsmen who need to carry guns and protect themselves against their many enemies. This seems to include Northerners and blacks. A Civil Rights Act gave citizenship to black people in 1866. But success for the North and the subjugation of the South began a long period of difficult times for people of colour. For many years after the end of the war, the Ku Klux Klan was merely one of many instruments to empower whites and punish people of colour. White governors and police stood by idly, as lynch mobs shot blacks with impunity. Lynch mobs strung up black men on the excuse that they had attacked white women. There is a US website listing the lynching of people over the years; it includes blacks, Latins and Native Americans. Even in 2015, the Guardian found that young black men were nine times more likely than others to be killed by police. Outsiders ask themselves- why? When will it all stop?

It's important that the musical is located where it is. The Civil War started out among the Gulf States (notably Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina); other States joined in more reluctantly. One Mississippi leader wanted to export its system of slavery to the Caribbean, even though there had already been a long history of slaves being sold to many parts of the Americas, including the West Indies and Brazil. Mississippi had long been outspoken in its support for slavery and many might have bitterly resented its defeat in the Civil War. Well into the 1930s, it led the country in the number of lynchings. To this day, Mississippi retains the Confederate flag. It is the only US state to do so, despite some protests. Some argue that many Southerners want to deny any responsibility for black suffering. They imagine that the South could have continued its dual-race inequality and deny that slavery was evil. They proudly uphold the Confederate flag and all it represents. This might be a commonly held view; a sensible person would suspect that there might well be others in the South who have a different view. But I wonder how Southerners – or any Americans- might view the many jarring notes in the movie pointing out the harsh reality of institutionalised racism and the suffering of the oppressed.

And so we come back to where we started. The numerous revisions of the show indicate some of the common difficulties of representing our past, whether we are North Americans, Australians or Chinese. Issues about what is appropriate, complaints about 'political correctness', and gripes about having to say things acceptably show us that history lives. Not in dusty books, but in our daily lives. How should we reflect on our past? What language should we use, and how do we describe injustice? Show Boat seems silly at times: who is now called Gaylord, for heaven's sake? What's with all the tedious dancing and frothy tunes? But beneath the surface, and not far beneath, there is a finger pointing at white America. And it says: Don't forget your past, and the misery whites inflicted on people of colour. And is that only in the past? You have to wonder.