INTERVIEW: Director David Herskovits on the reimagined ‘Show/Boat: A River’
Photo: Show/Boat: A River stars, from left, Stephanie Weeks, Alvin Crawford, Philip Temio Stoddard and Edwin Joseph. Photo courtesy of Greg Kessler / Provided by Everyman Agency with permission.
Show Boat, the Oscar Hammerstein III and Jerome Kern musical, is nearing its 100th anniversary, but directors and performers often struggle with how to tell its story and acknowledge that the piece is highly problematic with a history of racist stereotypes and portrayals. Director David Herskovits, the artistic director of Target Margin Theater, has decided to reimagine the piece and face the controversy head on. Joining him on this journey is a hard-working, talented cast, who help in reframing the show for “today’s audience,” as press notes indicate.
The result of their reimagining is called Show/Boat: A River, which is being presented by Target Margin Theater at NYU Skirball through Sunday, Jan. 26. The production is part of the annual Under the Radar Festival. Officially, the show is billed as a play with music adapted from the original Show Boat.
“It really is for today,” Herskovits said in a recent phone interview. “It is for the present. It’s a story about America and the making of America today, and it’s a show that I hope is going to make people reconsider Show Boat, reconsider the musical and reconsider the country. And the other thing I would say is the reason to do Show Boat is not to solve or edit around the problems of the piece, but to look at the problems that are meaningful for now. And that’s what’s exciting about. this. P.S. — the music is gorgeous.”
Herskovits, who also adapted the piece, said he knew he needed a talented group of diverse people to pull off this reimagining. He wanted different abilities and backgrounds represented in the rehearsal room. He wanted the difficult conversations to happen early and often.
“I would say the conversation in the room was one of the most exciting things about the piece already, even if we never opened it,” he said. “I feel like just working on it has been such a great adventure and a fruitful process for the group that we’ve gathered. That’s been kind of a joy, which is a funny thing to say because some of the problems are so challenging and so troubling, but still it is has been joyful together. … That’s been a special thing and a little bit of a surprise how good the conversation has turned out.”
Target Margin Theater has a reputation for diving deep into difficult projects and trying to reinterpret classic pieces like Show Boat. This production is one of the highest profile shows of the company’s entire history. Show/Boat: A River is the premiere piece of the Under the Radar Festival and has many seats to sell in the voluminous NYU Skirball.
“I want to do stuff that is going to be challenging,” Herskovits admitted. “I’ll tell you something that I say frequently: I want to get an A+. I want to stick the landing. I want to get the gold medal. You bet I do, but I also want to do stuff that’s really going to push the form and our audiences and our artists. And therefore I’d rather get an F than a C. I want to get an A+, but I’d rather get an F than a C. We’re going to go for it, and what I don’t want is to be in the safe middle. But you’re right, that means I’m absolutely worried that people will bring expectations about Show Boat or about what a musical has to be, and we’re not going to satisfy those expectations because this is not a traditional treatment of the musical. I really believe what we’re doing is pretty easy to enjoy and get into, but, of course, I know that with something like Show Boat, people bring their own ideas to it. And no matter what I do, there’s nothing I can do about that.”
Herskovits pointed to two fellow collaborators that have particularly helped him on this journey. His two musical directors — Dionne McClain-Freeney and Dan Schlosberg — are key members in what the director said is a “friendly and supportive group.”
“It’s a very, very big, very, very ranging family, which is great,” he said. “The vibe in the room is super-respectful and good. It’s been a really friendly and supportive group, but also people bring great ideas and impulses and things I never would have been able to think about or investigate myself. A great example are the music directors who I gathered. One of the first things I did was I found two music directors who are sharing the leadership of that element of the work, and they are different, interesting, deeply experienced people, one of whom is an older Black woman, Dionne McClain-Freeney. And one of them is a younger white guy who is more from the world of classical music and opera [Schlosberg], and Dionne is more from the world of vocal performance and choral performance. It’s just fantastic to work with them.”
What exactly will audiences experience at NYU Skirball? Well, Herskovits kept most of his directorial choices a secret, but he did allow some hints.
“We’ve cut the book,” the director said. “We’ve compressed it a bunch. It runs about two-and-a-half hours, and we reframed it theatrically. But I wanted to give people the songs, and I wanted to give people the pleasure of the songs and the beauties of the story, too. So we talk sometimes about how hard Show Boat is, but it’s also just delightful. There are so many delights and joys in it, chief among them is the music. When we started working on it, I knew that just as I wanted to grapple with the trouble, I also wanted to lift up the delight and the pleasure. I want to hear those songs, and I want to hear them beautifully sung and played. And I’m very, very happy about that.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Show/Boat: A River, adapted and directed by David Herskovits, continues through Sunday, Jan. 26, at NYU Skirball. The Target Margin Theater production is part of the Under the Radar Festival. Click here for more information and tickets.
