SHOW BOAT, Starring Vanessa Williams, Julian Ovenden, Norm Lewis and More, Airs on LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER Tonight

"Kern & Hammerstein's Show Boat in Concert with the New York Philharmonic" airs tonight, October 16, 9:00 p.m. -11:00 p.m. ET as part of LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER.

This groundbreaking musical redefined entertainment and changed the face of American theater. Spanning the years from 1880 to 1927, Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's lyrical masterpiece concerns the lives, loves and heartbreaks of three generations of show folk on the Mississippi River, in Chicago and on Broadway. The musical's impact remains unparalleled, addressing racial prejudice, and introduced a bi-racial cast to Broadway at its premiere while also pointing the way toward a new synthesis between music and spectacle.

This New York Philharmonic production features an all-star cast led by Vanessa Williams and Downton Abbey's Julian Ovenden, as well as Norm Lewis, Jane Alexander, Fred Willard, and Lauren Worsham. The Philharmonic's full sound highlights the lush musical score at the center of this epic show.

Based on a bestselling novel by Edna Ferber, SHOW BOAT tells the 40-year story of the lives of performers, stagehands, and dock workers who are the denizens of the Cotton Blossom, a Mississippi River show boat. The New Yorker noted that the show "was a radical departure in musical storytelling, marrying spectacle with seriousness," moving beyond the light and airy plots of previous operettas and musical comedies with its serious subjects of racial prejudice and tragic love.

Highlights include "Ol' Man River," "Make Believe," and "Can't Help Lovin' DatMan." Broadway's most revived and revised work, Show Boat was the first musical ever performed by an opera company - by New York City Opera in 1954. Recent productions have garnered the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical (1995) and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival (1991).

Photo Credit: Walter McBride