Daily News from New York, New York • 87

EmterMmmeinitl: Can't help loving that or 'Show Boat' By DOUGLAS WATT SHOW BOAT. Musical with book and lyric by Oscar Hammersteln II, and music by Jereme Kern. With Donald O'Connor, Ron Raines, Shan't Woods, Lonatta McKaa. Karla Bums, Avrll Gentles, Paul Keith, Palae O'Hara, others. Directed by Michael Kahn.

Choreoera-Phy by Dorothy Dannar. Scenery by Herbert Senn A Helen Pond. Costumes by Molly Maginnls. Llghtlna by Thomas Skelton. Orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett.

Conducted by Jack Everly. At the Uris. Bruce Hubbard (left) sings "Or Man River" in revival of "Show Boat" at the Uris. work in the history of the American musical, an inspired advance in the form not further enlarged upon (if we discount Kern's "Continental" scores for "The Cat and the Fiddle" and "Music in the until its librettist, Oscar Hammersteln, teamed up with Richard Rodgers many years later to further integrate the genre with dance, an element given only perfunctory, though enjoyable, treatment in "Show Boat." The fond, foolish, shamelessly sentimental, but irresistible book, which treatens to come apart at the seams in the second and weaker half, is held together indeed, sublimated by Kern's brilliant, springtime-fresh score with its shrewd use of motifs under scenes (Bennett's hand is splendidly employed here), particularly in the first act And it is that act, culminating with the soaring "You Are Love" duet, that contains most of the great songs, including "Make Believe," "Can't Help Lovin Dat Man," and "OP Man River," a "show tune" of a magnificence unparalleled in Broadway musical theater. SHERYL WOODS and Ron Raines are a handsome and rich-voiced couple as the lovers, Andy's and Parthy Ann's daughter, Magnolia, and the dashing riverboat gambler Gaylord Ravenal.

Their "Make Believe" and "You Are Love" duets are enchanting as we have every right to expect Oddly, their "Why Do I Love Vou," line of the second act's two fine songs, is done with little feeling. This brings us to "Bill," the other big, second-act song. It is sung, of course, by Julie, the mulatto who has, until exposed, been passing as a white performer on the showboat. Lonette McKee. said to be the first black assigned this role in a major revival, is a beautiful Julie and It has taken Rodgers Your Gershwin and Bess," with more Gershwin to come), and now Kern, whose "Show Boat" returned last night at the Uris, to rescue a waning Broadway musival season.

Can Porter be far behind? This is a full-scale, lavishly mounted "Show Boat," probably more faithful to the original 1927 production than any of its many reincarnations on stage and screen. (The' only sizable omission is the amusing "In Dahomey" fair number.) Recreated by the Houston Grand Opera, which brought us the uncut and gleaming 1976 revival of "Porgy and Bess," it boasts many fine, trained voices (though the amplification essential in this ungrateful auditorium makes it difficult to assess their true value), a full orchestra playing the original Robert Russell Bennett arrangements right down to the overture opening with the haunting "Misery" music, scads of gorgeous costumes, and an assortment of flats and painted backdrops in keeping with an earlier Broadway. WITH DONALD O'CONNOR as a sprightly and engaging, if not the ami-; liarly hearty, Cap'n Andy (he even manages to work in a brief bit of fancy footwork), and the other principals of a mostly superior -order, this "Show Boat" sails delightfully along for close on to three hours. It is, as everyone knows by now, a impressive in the first act, using her contralto to excellent advantage in "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man." But, strangely, her "Bill," delivered, according to the custom established by Helen Morgan, while perched atop a rehearsal upright, misses the mark; it is sung accurately, but expressionessly. BARITONE Bruce Hubard, as Joe, the black longshoreman, delivers "01' Man River" beautifully, both with and without a first-rate black male chorus in support, though this is a song requiring a bass-baritone for full effect A rotund Karla Burns stops the show repeatedly as Joe's zestful better half, Queenie.

Paul Keith, calling to mind a tall Ben Blue, is a most entertaining Frank, half of the. show's comedy team, and Paige O'Hara is cute and effervescent as his soubrette partner, Ellie. A rangy, bony Avril Gentles, possessor of a formidably harsh voice, is a commanding Parthy Ann. All of the lesser roles are set forth ably under Michael Kahn's effortless. nicely-contained direction.

Dorothy Danner's choreography is routine, but in keeping, and especially so in the Cakewalk strutting to "Queenie's Ballyhoo." Rarely heard since the original production, by the way, is Queenie's up-tempo "Hey, Feller" just before the finale in which Ravenal, who had left Magnolia and their infant daughter 15 years before, only to turn up unexpectedly in 1927 for a happy reunion of sorts, embraces Magnolia while the entire cast is lined up before Andy's splashy new showboat. The scenery, allowing for the customary "in one" numbers during major scene changes, has been brightly and fittingly designed by the team of Herbert Senn and Helen Pond, and the outstanding costumes were run up by Holly Maginnis. Thomas Skelton has lighted the show faultlessly. With all its corn and plot contrivances, "Show Boat" is a buoyant slice of Americana and, thanks to Kern's transcendent score, evergreen. By BRUCE CHADWICK Public Library plans to survey it for month A Tribute to Laurence Olivier.

Sponsored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Avery Fisher Hall, 8 American Composers Orchestra. Michael Tilsort Thomas, conductor. Alice Tully Hall, 8 Helen Forrest. Big band singer, opening.

Third 9 and 11 GLORIOUS but little-known chapter of thea-i ter history will be revived by its creators aW tonight at the New York Public Library's Central Research Branch at Fifth Ave. and 42d St when actor-director John Houseman, playwright Abram Hill and others discuss the Negro Theater Project of the 1930s as part of a monthlong celebra tion of black theater at the library and its branches. The Negro Theater Project was part of the Federal Theater Project of Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration. It was born with much fanfare in 1935 and died after much controversy In 1939.

During its short life, the Negro Theater Project took over the Lafayette Theater in Harlem, produced dozens of plays, provided work for 700 unemployed people (at the staggering salary of $20 a week) and gave black- technicians, long barred from theaters, whole new careers. THE HIGHLIGHT of the project of which Houseman was co-chairman, was the controversial setting of "Macbeth" in Haiti with voodoo doctors replacing the traditional witches. The play, directed by an unknown young actor named Orson Welles, caused an uproar at the time and was a great success. Joining Houseman and Hill on tonight's panel discussion (6 p.m. in the main library's Trustees Room) will be stage manager Tommy Anderson, actor-designer Charles Monroe and composer Leonard De Paur, now head of Lincoln Center's Relations Program.

"The Negro Theater Project fell into some hole in history and never received its just praise," said David Cronin, special grants administrator of the library JF I 1 i I V. ON FRIDAY, the Schomburg Center for Research In Black Culture, 515 Lenox opened a month-long photo exhibit "Scenes From the 20th Century Stage: Black Theater in Photographs." The exhibit includes over 100 pictures plus playbills, posters and scripts that highlight the accomplishments of black writers, actors and directors from 1900 to today. In addition to the photo exhibit, the Schomburg Center will host two symposiums on playwrighting (tonight and May 7), and two symposiums on black theater history, featuring Ruby Dee, Clifford Mason, Dick Campbell, Joan Sandler, Richard Wesley and others (May 14 and 21). The photos in the Schomburg exhibit run from a 1906 picture of "In Abyssinia" to the 1982 production of "Do Lord Remember Me." They include pictures of scenes from "Harlem," a 1929 Broadway play, "Shuffle Along," the most famous musical by the late Eubie Blake, plays starring Paul Robeson and other recent productions. THE PURPOSE of the exhibit is to focus attention on all of black theater, not just the recent past "Too many theatergoers, black and white, think that black theater consisted of Paul Robeson and the late '60s to the present and nothing else," said Diana Lachatanere, Schomburg's assistant archivist "We want to show everything, to let people know that blacks were instrumental in the theater for more than 80 years.

It's a rich and proud history but, unfortunately, has never been thoroughly explored." and director of tonight's discussion. "Some fantastic projects were carried out by some extraordinary artists. We want people to know about them, what they did and the positive reception they had from' audiences of the day." HicHaKfeJ HarrisorTanJSaiem utuvriepm the 1930 "Green Pastures..