BWW Interviews: Rob Ruggiero Captains New Streamlined SHOW BOAT at Goodspeed Musicals

A young Samuel Clemens grew up on the banks of the Mississippi and dreamed one day of becoming a riverboat pilot.  He took his famous pen name from the two-fathom measure that was dropped into muddy water.  When someone shouted "Mark Twain" it indicated that the boat was now in safe water.  Audiences should be happy to know that they will be entering safe water on the Connecticut River when Hartford-area director Rob Ruggiero takes the wheel of the granddaddy of all Broadway musicals Show Boat, July 1^st through September 11^th at Goodspeed Musicals on the banks of the river in East Haddam, CT.  It isn't the first musical foray down the Mississippi for Ruggiero and the Goodspeed as he directed Big River, the musicalization of Twain's Huckleberry Finn.  Twain, like Ruggiero, lived in Hartford when he created Huck Finn and it is down the street from Twain's home that Rob and I decide to meet. 

In the weeks leading up to the launch of Show Boat, we grab coffee and cinnamon twists to discuss life upon the wicked stage and how Rob is going to shoehorn one of the largest musicals in the canon onto Goodspeed's notoriously tiny stage.  Ever the director (and a good friend), Rob had to fight the urge to direct the interview.  As I open my laptop: "You're going to type what I say?"  I responded that I don't have a recording device.  He laughs at me and continues to laugh as I ask him to slow down so I can keep up with his rapidfire musings.  I managed to keep my head above water and steer the conversation to safe water as his thoughts came flowing faster than the mighty Mississippi.

THIS IS YOUR FOURTH SHOW AT GOODSPEED, CORRECT?

Fifth!  1776, Big River, Camelot, Annie Get Your Gun and, now, Showboat.

SO AFTER NAVIGATING BIG RIVER, ARE YOU EXCITED TO ONCE AGAIN HOP ON THE MISSISSIPPI?

Yes!

SO HOW DID SHOW BOAT COME ABOUT?

I have a strong association with Goodspeed.  I do consider it one of my artistic homes.  I love being there.  I love the people there.  I think they are happy with me there as I keep getting asked back.  About a year ago, I got a call from Donna Lynn Hilton.  She asked if I would be interested in Showboat.  She makes fun of me because I said, "Let me look at it."  I didn't know Show Boat.  I hadn't seen it.  I've never read it.  I wanted to make sure it was a good match for me.  I listened to it and read it and immediately found something that interested me in telling that story.  To circle back, they wanted to do Show Boat and they only wanted to do it with me.  They knew it was a monumental task.  They knew my creative team could handle it.  I wanted to be able to start early and I've been preparing this off and on for the last year, really.  So the next question is, "why did you want to do it?

ARE YOU DIRECTING THIS INTERVIEW?

I thought it was the obvious question.  I'll let you do your job.

WHY, THANK YOU!  SO, WHY DID YOU WANT TO DO IT?

Oh, let's see, Jacques, why did I want to do it?  Like anything, I needed to be sure I could find a way in.  Like a lot of people, I thought of Show Boat as that sweet old musical from way back when.  It's interesting when you read it that the story is very engaging.  What really connected with me and what is inspiring me throughout is the story of a show business family.  This family crosses beyond blood, crosses race, crosses class.  In show business you create a family when you create a show.  I really love this story.  It was very interesting to see that something first written and performed in 1927 had some really interesting and relevant things to say.  It didn't feel old and it didn't feel dusty.  What was really exciting was that I was given the 1946 version and the Hal Prince 1994 revival.  I decided I was going to base Goodspeed's version on the 1946 version and start there.

WHAT DREW YOU TO THE 1946 VERSION OVER THE Hal Prince VERSION?

I've never seen any version.

HAVE YOU SEEN THE FILM?

Eventually, yes.  I've heard every recording now and I've seen the films.  There's the MGM version from the 1950s.  It's very MGM - Technicolor and very abbreviated.  Songs have been cut. Characters have been cut.  And then I saw the 1936 film. which I love.  What's wonderful about Show Boat is that it has never been done exactly the same way twice.  I don't know the reason why, but since its inception, scenes have come and gone and songs have come and gone.  Things have been re-sequenced.  So, from my understanding, usually it is done very big and very epic.  The Hal Prince version was very entertainment/dance-based.  Very opulent and production-based.  There are two challenges off the bat.  #1 - How do I fit Show Boat on the Goodspeed stage in terms of pure real estate.  And #2, how do I do Show Boat with less people - a cast of 25 and 3 swings.  So just by pure definition, there are things that we couldn't do that weren't script.

LIKE WHAT?

Like put a stage on a stage.  Put a whole theatre on a stage.  Or be able to fit the boat, the showpeople and the townspeople looking at the boat.  It would be a very small boat.

SO HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE SHOWBOAT?

I had established a relationship with Ted Chapin and the Rodgers & Hammerstein organization with Annie Get Your Gun.  And so when this became a reality, I actually met with them, at a certain point when I was ready to propose my ideas...my way in to solve it for Goodspeed.  They were extraordinarily open and helpful through this whole process.  I think they understand the value of this working on a small stage being a good thing for the show.  They have also exhibited great trust and support of my work, which is both exciting and daunting at the same time.

DID THEY SAY NO TO ANY OF YOUR PROPOSED CHANGES?

Nope.  They were very receptive and excited at the first meeting.  Further down the path, I actually had to do a presentation of a particular section which they really loved.  We had to do another presentation after that for Alice Hammerstein and Julie Gilbert, Edna Ferber's great-niece. 

AND HOW DID THEY LIKE IT?

They approved it.  They were very excited about what we had constructed.  It was a framework of an idea for a particular section.  They embraced the idea that I was taking Show Boat to a more concise, story-centric place - that focuses on the relationships and the family.  Trimming away a bit of the stuff that served the more large-scale productions, which takes us to a much more intimate Show Boat.  Maybe one of the most intimate Show Boats to date.

DO YOU FEAR AUDIENCES MAY FEEL GIPPED BECAUSE THEY EXPECT A LARGE SHOW BOAT?

No, I don't because nothing I have done has removed, for lack of a better word, any of the iconic moments.  In fact I think they will feel more connected to the show in a way they haven't before without losing any of what they love about it.  The actors who have been in the show are very excited about the choices because what it does is focus on the things that are engaging and funny and touching.  When I tell people I am directing Show Boat at Goodspeed, I get two responses.  "How many times have they done it?" They've never done it.  Since it's an old show, they assume that they've done it.  But the more common question is, "HOW are you going to do Show Boat at Goodspeed?"  We all knew one thing going into this, you cannot do Show Boat without a boat.

SO HOW ARE YOU GOING TO STUFF A SHOW BOAT INTO THE GOODSPEED'S TINY STAGE?

Therein lies the challenge, right?  The set designer, Michael Schweikardt, who has done all of my other productions at Goodspeed, and I worked really hard to figure that out.  We knew basically that we started there and everything else worked around there.  It is beautiful...very large and beautiful. This is one of the most grueling and exciting builds that Goodspeed has undertaken.  It is a multi-leveled, very realistic, steel structure.

DOES THE BOAT COME ON AND OFFSTAGE?

The boat arrives.  I'm not going to tell you how.  The trick is:  Act 1 is not bad.  The boat is there for Act 1.  Act 2: How then do you get from the boat to Chicago?  How do you leave the boat and then get back to the boat?  It's not like at intermission you can get rid of the boat.  On top of that, how do you articulate the boat - the front? The side?  All of these questions are critical.  I will summarize: we are using every inch possible, onstage and offstage.  I mean that - every inch.

GETTING BACK TO YOUR VERSION, DO YOU JETTISON THE CHICAGO WORLD'S FAIR STUFF?

That's gone. 

THERE'S A SONG ATTACHED TO THAT SCENE.

The song did not go.  There have been edits to serve the story.  In a broad statement, overall townspeople have been extracted from the story and we, the audience, fill those shoes for the most part.  The big thing that defines our Show Boat from any other Show Boat is the first ten minutes of the second act, where the World's Fair was.  There was no way to take on another scenic challenge like that.  There was no space.  It was quickly off the table.  I loved the challenge of connecting the end of Act 1 - the wedding of Ravenal and Magnolia - to the boarding house scene at the top of the second act where the story really picks up.  The challenge was, "How do we connect those?"

DID YOU MEET THAT CHALLENGE?

Everybody feels like I did.  I decided I wanted to do a montage of moments, a collection of little scenes that bridge that gap.  It helps the audience understand how the story bridged.  How they got from being on the boat and getting married and how they end up in a boarding house.  I took existing materials, some stuff from the movies; I took the songs "Why Do I Love You," "When Good Luck Comes My Way," and "MIs'ry's Comin';" and I took scenes and I basically take the audience on Magnolia and Ravenal's journey.

IS THIS WHAT YOU NEEDED TO CONVINCE THE RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN FOLKS TO ACCEPT?

They gave me access to everything including the 1927 manuscript.  At a certain point we met, Bruce Pomahac, he's a musical archivist for R&H.  He gave us some very helpful suggestions and input.  We went away, I sketched the story in and the structure.  And then Michael O'Flaherty (Musical Director for the production) worked on the musical lines - how to make the music interweave for the montage.  Bruce was very helpful in helping us find motifs that exist in certain songs that we hadn't even thought of.  We presented it to R&H and they loved it.  And then I did a little bit of tweaking and then we presented it to the estates and they were very happy.  Basically that thing makes up the first ten minutes of Act 2.  The show is running about, with intermission, 2 ½ hours. Aren't you going to ask me about my inspiration for the sequence?

WHAT WAS YOUR INSPIRATION FOR THE SEQUENCE?

My inspiration for the sequence was the "Sadie, Sadie Married Lady" sequence in Funny Girl.  It tells the whole story of Nick and Fanny's early marriage.  When she says, "I guess you lost your ruffled shirt?"  It was really important to see how they got rich.  I always make my choices by choosing what honors the story.  I try to serve the story.  Reading the novel and listening to the recordings, I really connected to it.  I was hoping we were serving the material.  I feel like limitations sometimes bring us great creativity.  Not sometimes, all times.

SO, IN DOING THE 1946 VERSION, ARE YOU RETAINING THE WORD "NIGGER" WHEN IT APPEARS IN THE OPENING SONG?  THE Hal Prince VERSION USED THE TERM "COLORED FOLKS WORK ON THE MISSISSIPPI."

The word "nigger" appears in our version where it appears in the 1946 version, which used the term "Colored Folks." 

SO EVEN IN 1946, THEY HAD STARTED PHASING OUT THE USE OF THE WORD FROM THE 1927 VERSION?

Right.  I think it's retained in the book by some of the most racist characters.  Most of the characters that aren't racist use the term "Negro."  In the opening, the African-American ensemble never refers to themselves [with that word]. I think there was more anxiety about that when we did Big River, but the audience was able to understand the historical context.  It's not extracted from our book at all.  We open with "Colored Folks Work on the Mississippi."  It wasn't a choice away from the original.

WHY DID YOU NOT USE THE 1927 VERSION OF SHOW BOAT?

It wasn't given to me as an option, but I think that is because the authors themselves made changes between 1927 and 1946.  I was given the 1927 version to refer back to as a resource.  There are some lovely scenes that are there, but audiences today like you to be economical in your storytelling.  Back then, longer was better.  I felt so grateful that I was able to pull from various sources.  Some of these scenes are really engaging in the rehearsal room with very little change.  Mr. Hammerstein wrote a very good book.  As good as books we get today.  He knew how to get information to us without hitting us over the head.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE SONG OR MOMENT IN THE SHOW?

There are a few of them.  I've invested so much in all of it, there's different meaning in different places.  I have a special place for the top of Act 2.  Of course, "Old Man River."  The magnitude and layers of meaning that that song exudes is very poignant and it touches you.  And that song weaves throughout the show. It's an amazing song.  "Can't Help Lovin' That Man" in terms of music has both things - fun and a show of heart.  It's my favorite.

Show Boat docks at East Haddam, CT's Goodspeed Musicals from July 1^st through September 11^th.  For tickets and information, visit www.goodspeed.org.

 

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos

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