The story covers the Hawks family on the River Boat and there family over three generations. , The Cotton Blossom. The saga spans over a period of time from the mid 1880's to the then late 1920's, and follows the of Magnolia Hawks and her husband Gaylord Ravenal who is a persistent gambler. Magnolia, struggles throughout the story with her relationship while on the boat due to her parents who own the Cherry Blossoms, Captain Andy Hawks and his wife, Parthy. Interwoven into the story of the Hawks and the
Ravenal's is the story of the black workers and stevedores along the Mississippi and on the Cotton Blossom. Queenie and Joe are two black workers who work on the ship but there story is significantly is about their lives on board the River Boat;…show more content… -Tommasini, A (2008) Fish Got To Swim, Birds Got to Fly, Genres Got to Meld, New York times
In the words of The New Yorker theatre critic John Lahr, "describing racism doesn't make Show Boat racist". The production is carefully crafted and produced in honouring the influence of black culture not just in the making of the nation's wealth but, through music, in the making of its modern spirit.
Broadway writers have long used the musicals like this as a way to express for tolerance and to defuse racism those who attempt to understand black shows like Show Boat and Porgy and Bess (spoken more in depth in chapter two) from the creators point of view eyes they considered that the show was a statement against racism. That was the point of Edna Ferber's novel. That was the point of the
