Just having tickets has not been enough to get audiences into Harold Prince's spectacular, 71-actor, $6.5 million staging of Show Boat at the opulent new North York Performing Arts Centre in suburban Toronto. It has also been necessary to pass in front of black hecklers shouting insults and waving placards reading SHOW BOAT SPREADS LIES AND HATE and SHOW BOAT = CULTURAL GENOCIDE. The protest, under police guard, has not deterred many ticket holders but may have had a striking impact on potential sales: inside the theater, the only black faces readily apparent belong to ushers. As often happens when a...
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