The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians described in 1980 that Show Boat is "perhaps the most successful and influential Broadway musical play ever written."Show Boat has not only won the exaltation of critics who attended the premiere on December 27, 1917, viewing it as "not only a hit but a show of originality and significance", but also stood the test of time and has been enjoying "the critical respect of musical-theatre historians for more than 70 years", with its "coveted historical position as the foundation of the modern American musical."
The musical Show Boat grew out of a musical tradition which was as mixed as American culture itself. Generally speaking, American musicals are mainly evolved from two strands: the European Opera, and the native folk minstrel shows. When it came to the early 1920s, the interests of the musical audience in the United States began to shift from the life of European aristocrats to the middle-class American citizens, with the emergence of a clear national identity in the musicals. By the early 1920s, there were several different types of musical shows in American theatres and could be generally divided into four categories: African-American musicals, musical comedies, operettas, and vaudeville. Vaudeville was already in its decline in the twenties, probably because of its random arrangements of plot and lack of cohesion. Musical comedy was one step forward that vaudeville, as it had an impression of the plot line. And when Show Boat was brought to the public, there was already a clear story line in the show, just like most of the operettas, which were generally taken more seriously than the above two types of musical shows. African-American musicals became increasingly popular in the early twenties. One of such was Deep River, which dealt seriously with racial issues, thus was presumed to have an important influence on Show Boat.
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