STAGE TUBE: Audra McDonald on Becoming Bess

The Gershwins' PORGY AND BESS opens on Thursday, January 12th, 2012 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre (226 West 46th Street, between 8th Avenue and Broadway). Tickets are now on sale at Ticketmaster.com or by calling 877-250-2929. In the video, leading lady Audra McDonald chats about what it's like to take on the iconic character.

Joining Audra McDonald as Bess, Norm Lewis as Porgy and David Alan Grier as Sporting Life are Phillip Boykin as Crown, Nikki Renée Daniels as Clara, Joshua Henry as Jake, Christopher Innvar as Detective, Bryonha Marie Parham as Serena and NaTasha Yvette Williams as Mariah as well as Allison Blackwell, Roosevelt André Credit, Trevon Davis, Joseph Dellger, Wilkie Ferguson, Carmen Ruby Floyd, Heather Hill, David Hughey, Andrea Jones-Sojola, Alicia Hall Moran, Cedric Neal, Phumzile Sojola, Nathaniel Stampley, Julius Thomas III, J.D. Webster and Lisa Nicole Wilkerson.

The Gershwins' PORGY AND BESS comes to Broadway in a new staging, featuring such legendary songs as "Summertime," "It Ain't Necessarily So," and "I Got Plenty Of Nothing," plus a remarkable cast led by four-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald (Ragtime, "Private Practice"), Drama Desk nominee Norm Lewis (Les Misérables, Sondheim on Sondheim) and two-time Tony nominee David Alan Grier (Race, "In Living Color"). The classic story by DuBose and Dorothy Heyward is set in Charleston's fabled Catfish Row, where the beautiful Bess struggles to break free from her scandalous past, and the only one who can rescue her is the crippled but courageous Porgy. Threatened by her formidable former lover Crown, and the seductive enticements of the colorful troublemaker Sporting Life, Porgy and Bess' relationship evolves into a deep romance that triumphs as one of theater's most exhilarating love stories.

Following its sold-out world premiere engagement at Boston's American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.), the creative team, led by Tony-nominated director Diane Paulus(Hair), Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks (Topdog/Underdog), and two-time Obie Award-winning composer Diedre L. Murray (Running Man), now brings George and Ira Gershwin's legendary masterwork to the Broadway stage for the first time in more than 35 years.

The creative team also includes choreographer Ronald K. Brown, set designer Riccardo Hernandez, costume designer ESosa, lighting designer Christopher Akerlind and sound designer ACME Sound Partners.

The A.R.T. production of The Gershwins' PORGY AND BESS is produced by Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel and Rebecca Gold.