SHOW BOAT - PAPER MILL PLAYHOUSE 1989 - 2 DVDS

Most of the actors were unfamiliar to me, but they were outstanding. P.J. Brown as Joe has a rich, bass voice, quite able to withstand the inevitable comparisons with Paul Robeson's performance in the 1936 movie. Playing Queenie, Joe's wife, Ellia English outdoes her famous 1936 counterpart (Hattie McDaniel) as both actress and singer. Rebecca Baxter as Magnolia Hawks has a lovely soprano and a youthful appearance persuasively close to Magnolia's 19 years. She is also a marvelous dancer, with great legs, which she shows to advantage, playing Magnolia's daughter in 1920s costume. Shelly Burch as Julie La Verne looks and sounds right for the character when she speaks, but I thought her singing voice too high and coloratura-like for the role. One advantage of this production is that it has enough time (over 2.5 hours) to emphasize an aspect of the operetta that abridged versions scant. The action occurs at four different times: 1887 on the southern Mississippi River, 1892 in Chicago at