NEW YORK (AP) – If you missed the production of “Show Boat” in San Francisco last summer, you missed something big – 65 singers, actors and dancers onstage and some 47 musicians in the orchestra pit.
“It was a thrill to be part of,” said Bill Irwin, who starred in the show as Cap’n Andy. “It seemed to be a living, breathing huge but alive thing while we were doing it.”
Now the rest of us have a chance to see it, too. Digital distributor Rising Alternative plans to broadcast the San Francisco Opera’s show this summer to movie theaters across the country.
The wave of broadcasts began in Los Angeles this week and New York City is slated to get it June 12. Other cities soon to screen the Francesca Zambello-directed show include Boston, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Miami, Atlanta, St. Louis, Philadelphia, San Jose and Honolulu.
“Show Boat” centers on a family that operates a floating theater along the Mississippi River and tells a sweeping tale of show business, racism, bitter poverty and tragic love that spans 40 years, from 1887 to 1927.