Interview: Michael Kahn Talks Show Boat 35 Years After his Production Premiered on Broadway

Most of us in this area know Michael Kahn as the Artistic Director of Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC). It's a post he will have held for over thirty years when he retires at the end of the company's 2018/19 season.

Before Kahn became one of DC's most influential Artistic Directors he was directing on Broadway and across the country. One of his Broadway turns was a musical version of East of Eden called Here's Where I Belong. Musical theater diehards might remember it because despite it having a good score, it closed after only one Broadway performance.

35 years ago today, another of Michael Kahn's Broadway endeavors opened at the Uris (now Gershwin) Theatre. This show - my own personal introduction to Michael Kahn's directing work - was more successful. It started out as a production for Houston Grand Opera and eventually turned into a touring show. Perhaps you might have heard of it. It was Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein groundbreaking musical Show Boat, starring Donald O'Connor as Cap'n Andy, Lonnette McKee as Julie, and a wonderful singer who died too soon named Bruce Hubbard as Joe. The production was conducted by Baltimore Symphony Pops Orchestra's maestro Jack Everly. Kahn received a Tony Award nomination for his work on the production.

While in rehearsal for Metromaniacs in New York, I was able to speak to Michael Kahn via telephone about Show Boat.

As you will read, he still has vivid memories of the production.

Theatre is meant to create memories. This production of Show Boat was a good one for me. I remember Bruce Hubbard stopping the show with "Ol' Man River". I remember watching Lonnette McKee break your heart as Julie. Of course, I also recall a lot of Michael Kahn's staging. Show Boat can feel long and clunky if staged wrong, but Kahn's production was full of life even as it told its serious story.

On the 35th anniversary of the Broadway opening of Michael Kahn's production of Show Boat, I salute this giant of the American theatre and of our local theater community.

Was Showboat your first foray into directing a musical?

It was not my first one. My first ones were at my performing arts high school and the varsity school at Columbia University. The latter was written by Edward Kleban.

My first professional musicals were Once upon a Mattress in Sharon, Connecticut and The Fantasticks with John Davidson. A musical based on East of Eden called Here's Where I Belong was my only other Broadway musical foray. It closed in one night.

What was it about Showboat that attracted you to the project?

Houston Grand Opera produced it and I had done Carmen for them with a libretto by Sheldon Harnick. It had elements of musical theater because we used dialogue. They asked me to do it. The idea of a piano in the rehearsal room gets me excited. We used the original orchestrations as much as possible. I loved the old-fashioned style of it. I loved the score and story. It was the first time some of the material was heard too.

How did you approach the material when you first started to work on it? What made your vision different from other productions?

I had never seen it before so I went in fresh. The racial story was at the heart of it.

Cap'n Andy usually doesn't get above the title billing, but Donald O' Connor did. Was he always attached to the production and what are your memories of directing him?

Yes, he was always in the show except for a vacation in one city. We had Donald O' Connor so we had to have him dance. He was a very funny actor.

The actor who played Joe in this production was a guy named Bruce Hubbard. He passed away far too young from AIDS. If he were still with us, where do you think his career would have gone?

He was such a gorgeous singer. I assume he'd be playing all the leads everyone else is playing now.

Lonnette McKee played Julie in the production. I believe, at the time, she had just finished a musical called The First. Did you see her in that show or did you find her at an audition?

It was very important to me that we have a Julie of color. It was very important to the opera company that they had a soprano, but no luck finding one of color.

I had never seen Lonnette before. Someone told me about her. I wanted to see her, but I couldn't for many reasons. On the last day of auditions, she came in, sang gorgeous, and that was my Julie much to the chagrin of the sopranos in the room. Our conductor started changing keys on-the-spot to make it right her at the audition.

Because Showboat is such a massive show with multiple storylines, do you find directing that show similar to the way you direct Shakespeare?

Absolutely, I like big shows with a lot of characters.

STC has produced several musicals over the past few years. You have not directed any of them though. Was this a conscious choice, and if you had a chance to direct a musical for your last chosen season at STC, what would it be?

Yes it was a conscious choice. There are people that have better expertise for musicals than I do. For a long time, I thought I wanted to do The Threepenny Opera until I didn't want to do it. I've had such a long career and done pretty much everything I've wanted to do. I have plenty coming up next season to keep me busy.

Special thanks to Shakespeare Theatre Company's publicist Amy Killion for her assistance in coordinating this interview.

Additional thanks to Houston Grand Opera publicist Melissa Arredondo of Elmore Public Relations Inc. for her assistance in acquiring the vintage photos from the Houston Grand Opera 1982 premiere of Show Boat directed by Michael Kahn.

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