program > main stage
Target Margin Theater + David Herskovits
Show/Boat: A River
Presented by NYU Skirball Center and Produced by Target Margin Theater
A daring reimagining of the seminal musical
Obie Award-winning Target Margin Theater, in collaboration with NYU Skirball, presents a daring reimagining of the seminal musical Show Boat, now re-envisioned as Show/Boat: A River. This bold adaptation reframes the 1927 classic for today’s audience, exploring America’s transformation from 1880s Jim Crow to the challenges of today – journeying from steamboats to airplanes, vaudeville to radio, and the Spanish-moss South to the bustling city of Chicago amid the Great Migration. Show Boat is both a powerful narrative and a historical reflection, revealing a legacy marked by violent racism while striving for a more just America. Director David Herskovits, known for his provocative interpretations, brings a fresh perspective to this quintessentially American masterpiece. Building on Target Margin’s renowned tradition of re-envisioning classic works, this new staging promises the company’s trademark extravagant theatricality, intricate design layers, and a vibrant celebration of language, song, and spirit. Show / Boat: A River challenges us to confront our past and envision a reimagined America for 2025, bridging the gap between history and the present with striking relevance.
The recently announced cast includes Tẹmídayọ Amay, Alvin Crawford, Caitlin Nasema Cassidy, Suzanne Darrell, Edwin Joseph, J Molière, Steven Rattazzi, Philip Themio Stoddard, Rebbekah Vega-Romero and Stephanie Weeks.
Show Boat, based on the 1926 novel by Edna Ferber, is both a powerful narrative and a historical reflection, revealing a legacy marked by violent racism while striving for a more just America. The work explores America’s transformation from the 1880s through the Jazz Age —journeying from steamboats to airplanes, vaudeville to radio, and the Spanish-moss South to the bustling city of Chicago amid the Great Migration. Show Boat forever changed the face of American theater. The first show to integrate its music and plot, Show Boat presented complex characters grappling with timely, realistic themes woven into a substantial plot. Its epic narrative concerns the lives, loves and heartbreaks of three generations of show folk and their lifelong friends on the Mississippi, in Chicago and on Broadway.
Note: This production includes racially offensive language and incidents. Recommended for audiences 14 and older.
SCHEDULE
January 9 to January 26
Wednesdays through Saturdays @ 7:30pm
Sundays @ 3pm
One Additional Performance on Monday, January 13 at 7:30 pm.
Run time: 2 hours 30 minutes
CREDITS
Directed by David Herskovits
Musical Director and Vocal Arranger: Dionne McClain-Freeney
Musical Director and Orchestrator: Dan Schlosberg
Choreography: Caroline Fermin
Scenic Design: Kaye Voyce
Costume Design: Dina El-Aziz
Lighting Design: Cha See
Production Stage Manager: Ryan Gohsman
Assistant Director: Adam M. Kassim
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
David Herskovits is the Founding Artistic Director of Target Margin Theater. He has directed a broad range of work, classics and neglected older work, new opera and music-theater, and adaptations of history and literature, for TMT and theaters, festivals, and universities all over, including The Spoleto Festival USA, Theatre for A New Audience, Lincoln Center Festival, The Bonn Biennale, The Kitchen, Mass MoCA, and many others. His Target Margin works have won multiple OBIEs and been presented nationally and internationally. David has lectured at Harvard, Yale, Williams, Wesleyan, The University of Nebraska, The School of Visual Art in Jerusalem, Juilliard, and other Universities and drama schools. He has written for The New York Times, American Theatre, Theatre Magazine, and Performing Arts Journal, among others. David does not know what a play is and seeks to answer that question.
Dionne McClain-Freeney is a musician, musical director, conductor, arranger, composer-lyricist, and actor. Recent off-Broadway and regional credits include: Composer-Lyricist and Musical Director, The Cotillion (Desk Award Nominee, AUDELCO Award Nominee); Musical Director and Conductor, When We Get There, (Sweeney Todd, Passing Strange, The Color Purple, BRECHT ON BRECHT, commissioned children’s theater works for Piper Theatre and Brooklyn Children’s Theatre, including a song honoring, and performed live for renowned actor Viola Davis; and a song on the album, Rainbow Lullaby (Broadway Records), the world’s first collection of lullabies especially for the children of LGBTQ parents.
Brooklyn-based composer-pianist-conductor Dan Schlosberg’s music has been performed at Carnegie Hall, (le) poisson rouge, and David Lynch’s Festival of Disruption. Dan recently conducted/re-orchestrated Anthony Roth Costanzo’s Marriage of Figaro and current projects include music direction/orchestrations for The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse, composition/music direction for Jeremy O. Harris’ A Boy’s Company Presents, and compositions for Patrick Wang’s film A. Rimbaud. He was the pianist for Spielberg’s West Side Story, a featured soloist for Only an Octave Apart with the NY Philharmonic and on NPR’s Tiny Desk, and has collaborated with Angel Blue, Ariana DeBose, Tony Kushner, Ben Stiller, and Justin Vivian Bond. He received a 2023 Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Music in a Play (Montag, Soho Rep). Schlosberg is Music Director of Heartbeat Opera, and the New York Times described his work as “the vision of a master sculptor.” www.danschlosberg.com
