In Dahomey - Song From 'Show Boat'

Song From 'Show Boat'

In Dahomey is also the title of a now rarely-performed choral number from the classic 1927 musical play Show Boat, by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II. The song is meant to be performed as the last number in Act II, Scene I of the show, a scene that also features the Act II Opening (Sports of Gay Chicago) and the hit love song Why Do I Love You?. In Dahomey is performed by what is supposedly a horde of African natives who are part of an exhibit at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. The song begins with the "natives" chanting in what is supposedly an African language, but as soon as the crowd disperses, they begin to sing in American dialect, revealing themselves to be African-Americans playing roles, and not genuine natives of Dahomey at all. Bert Williams himself had played an African "native" at the San Francisco Midwinter Exposition of 1894 when the Dahomey natives were late arriving from Chicago to San Francisco to occupy the African pavilion. The lyrics now become a comic expression of relief at the fact that the "natives" can now return to their apartments in New York.

Perhaps because of its potentially racially offensive content, and because the song is, strictly speaking, one of the few having absolutely no connection with the musical's storyline, In Dahomey was eliminated from the score of Show Boat after the musical's 1946 revival, and it has never been used in a film version of the show. Nor did it ever become a hit. However, it has been recorded three times, in 1928 by the original chorus used in the first London production of the show, in 1988 by the Ambrosian Chorus with John McGlinn conducting, who used it in his landmark 1988 EMI recording of the complete score of Show Boat, and in 1993 for the Studio Cast recording of 1946 revival version. It was omitted from the cast album of the 1946 Broadway revival of Show Boat, although it had been included in the revival.