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The Minnesota Centennial Showboat presents its 54th season of fun and laughter. Travel the Mississippi to Harriet Island in downtown St. Paul, dock up at the city dock just steps from the Showboat, and enjoy the decks and bars, and the greatest show on the water.
The present Showboat, built ten years ago in Mississippi and barged upriver to St. Paul, is a reconstruction of nineteenth-century showboats that once plied American rivers, presenting plays and music to riverbank populations. Its theater is styled after a vaudeville house, with painted scenery, footlights, and an ornate proscenium; the boat also includes welcoming public spaces, bars, and a beautiful upper deck lounge. Owned by the University of Minnesota since 1958, the Showboat presents an annual summer season of melodrama and comic musical interludes, brilliant costumes, and audiences are encouraged to boo the villains, cheer the heroes, and join in the fun.
This year's show is “The Vampire!”, a haunting thriller that comes to life on the moors of Scotland, and spins a story of true love, an imperilled heroine, sword fights and high adventure. The scenic effects, also built in old-fashioned grandeur, include howling windstorms, ghostly apparitions, shipwrecks, and spectacle.
The Minnesota Centennial Showboat on Harriet Island is open this summer through August 25. Free docking and a fun show.
“The Vampire!” performs matinees at 2:30 every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday; evening shows at 8 p.m. every Tuesday through Saturday, June 15 - 25. Reserve tickets ($23-$25) by calling 651-227-1100 or on-line.
Free public dockage is steps away; overnight transient slips available from St. Paul Yacht Club.
