THE GERSHWINS' PORGY AND BESS is the classic American tale is set in the 1930s in Catfish Row, a neighborhood in Charleston, South Carolina. Bess, beautiful and troubled, turns to Porgy, the crippled beggar, in search of safety after her possessive lover Crown commits murder. As Porgy and Bess's love grows, their future is threatened by Crown and the conniving Sporting Life. This heartbreaking love story boasts some of the most famous and beloved works from the Great American Songbook, including: "Summertime," "Bess, You Is My Woman," "It Ain't Necessarily So" and "I Loves You, Porgy."
For all the controversy that has surrounded Diane Paulus' revisionist Broadway revival of 'Porgy and Bess,' or, as it now is billed, 'The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess,' the considerable strengths of this production, which opened Thursday night at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, are in the traditional pleasures of witnessing a passionate, beautifully sung, richly visualized, splendidly played and indisputably well-intentioned 'Porgy.' This is a great American opera filled with breathtaking stakes, towering characters and a thudding naturalistic intensity. The considerable weaknesses don't really flow from cuts in the running time or the textual changes (the work of adapters Suzan-Lori Parks and Diedre L. Murray) designed to make this show more palatable for modern Broadway tastes and that famously aggrieved Stephen Sondheim, who stood in solidarity with the original librettist, DuBose Heyward, and preemptively howled against a proposed, but now abandoned, new ending wherein Bess returns to Catfish Row. They have all been overhyped and overdiscussed.
The show proves an especially winning vehicle for leading lady Audra McDonald. Where her dramatic soprano has seemed a little heavy or stiff in other musical-theater roles, she invests Bess' songs with both technical authority and a fluid, full-bodied sense of character that extends to her spoken lines. Tracing the drug-addled Bess' attempt to turn her life around under Porgy's loving guidance, McDonald is by turns tender and crass, droll and desperate, and always wrenchingly human. As Porgy, the less-celebrated Norm Lewis is a revelation. That the character walks with a cane here, rather than using the traditional goat cart, only emphasizes the contrast between his lame body and his bursting heart. Hobbling toward McDonald or carefully leaning in to embrace her, Lewis' eyes burn with a soulful urgency that matches his robust baritone.
1935 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
1942 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
1943 | Broadway |
Broadway |
1944 | Broadway |
Broadway |
1952 | West End |
London Revival West End |
1953 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
1961 | Off-Broadway |
City Center Revival Off-Broadway |
1964 | Off-Broadway |
City Center Revival Off-Broadway |
1976 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
1983 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
2000 | Broadway |
New York City Opera Production Broadway |
2006 | West End |
London Revival West End |
2012 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
2013 | US Tour |
National Tour US Tour |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2012 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Leading Actress in a Musical | Audra McDonald |
2012 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Musical | Norm Lewis |
2012 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Musical | Audra McDonald |
2012 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical | Phillip Boykin |
2012 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical | 0 |
2012 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Sound Design in a Musical | Acme Sound Partners |
2012 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Audra McDonald |
2012 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Norm Lewis |
2012 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Revival of a Musical | 0 |
2012 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Musical | Norm Lewis |
2012 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Musical | Audra McDonald |
2012 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical | Phillip Boykin |
2012 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical (Broadway or Off-Broadway) | 0 |
2012 | Theatre World Awards | Outstanding Debut Performance | Phillip Boykin |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Costume Design of a Musical | ESosa |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Musical | Diane Paulus |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Lighting Design of a Musical | Christopher Akerlind |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Orchestrations | Christopher Jahnke |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Orchestrations | William David Brohn |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical | Phillip Boykin |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical | David Alan Grier |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical | Norm Lewis |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical | Audra McDonald |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Jeffrey Richards |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Jerry Frankel |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Rebecca Gold |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Howard Kagan |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Cheryl Wiesenfeld/Brunish Trinchero/Lucio Simons TBC |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Joseph & Matthew Deitch |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Mark S. Golub & David S. Golub |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Terry Schnuck |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Freitag Productions/Koenigsberg Filerman |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | The Leonore S. Gershwin 1987 Trust |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Universal Pictures Stage Productions |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Ken Mahoney |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Judith Resnick |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Tulchin/Bartner/ATG |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Paper Boy Productions |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Christopher Hart |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Alden Badway |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Broadway Across America |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Irene Gandy |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Will Trice |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | American Repertory Theater |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Will Trice |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Jeffrey Richards |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Jerry Frankel |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Rebecca Gold |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Howard Kagan |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Cheryl Wiesenfeld/Brunish Trinchero/Lucio Simons TBC |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Joseph & Matthew Deitch |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Mark S. Golub & David S. Golub |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Terry Schnuck |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Freitag Productions/Koenigsberg Filerman |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | The Leonore S. Gershwin 1987 Trust |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Universal Pictures Stage Productions |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Ken Mahoney |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Judith Resnick |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Tulchin/Bartner/ATG |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Paper Boy Productions |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Christopher Hart |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Alden Badway |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Broadway Across America |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Irene Gandy |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | American Repertory Theater |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Jeffrey Richards |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Sound Design of a Musical | Acme Sound Partners |
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