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So shoot me, Porgy purists. To my mind, the retooling of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess for American Repertory Theater, intended to make the iconic folk opera work as a Broadway show, is compelling enough to push past quibbles. And in Audra McDonald it boasts a Bess as pained as she wrestles her devils as she is languorous and melodious in her delivery of the music. When on opening night she and Norm Lewis entwined their voices around “Bess, You Is My Woman Now,” toward the end of the first act (there are only two), I thought I’d died and gone to some auditory equivalent of the Promised Land those denizens of Catfish Row keep singing about.  

What matters in the end is that the great, unforgettable songs, from harrowing to uplifting, are all here, brilliantly served. What point, now, in carping? Pace to purists, whatever their beefs may be: This Porgy and Bess, flaws and all, offers a fully engaging, indeed rapturous experience.
Pace to purists, whatever their beefs may be: This Porgy and Bess, flaws and all, offers a fully engaging, indeed rapturous experience. 
 

When Stephen Sondheim fired off a letter to the New York Times protesting tampering with an American Masterpiece audiences were put on alert to anticipate a travesty. On opening night this week of The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess the artistic director of American Repertory Theatre, Diane Paulus, nixed those concerns in a triumph that had the audience hottin,’ hollerin’ and stomping through a Standing O and  numerous curtain calls. 

Stephen Sondheim, of all people, should know better than most of us to withhold judgment about a musical until he sees it. But not only is the new version thoroughly respectful toward the original opera, its changes are mostly subtle and, as far as I’m concerned, improvements on the original.  It is a real triumph, Diane Paulus did a great job. This is by far the best production of Porgy and Bess I have ever seen.   

The first strains of “Summertime” sent chills through my skin. Lullabying the baby in her arms, Nikki Rene Daniels’ Clara lilted the lyric, “and you’re mama’s good lookin’,” with a boastful half grin. Oh yeah, she’s the good lookin’ mama. I had never gotten the joke before. Instantly, the familiar pop song was transformed into the expressions of a new mother with fresh and urgent feelings to convey. That kind of move characterizes this production.  It’s full of strong acting choices that pull you into the play’s present and invest Gershwin’s sublime score with specific, immediate drama.  

As she has shown in the past, Paulus believes in less-is-more staging, and this pays off in her handling of the principals, as well as in the relationships of those living in this ghetto. “Porgy and Bess” bustles with a sense of community with subordinate characters expressing the facets of its diversity. 

There will always be a few nights at the theater that I will remember my whole life, when I was swept up in something truly thrilling and sublimely beautiful. Last night was one of those nights. I sat transfixed at the A.R.T. as Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis sang us to Nirvana in the new adaptation of PORGY AND BESS, a once-daring new opera that put the largest entirely black cast on the American stage for the first time–Boston’s Colonial Theater to be exact–in 1935.   

Director Diane Paulus puts the “revive” in “revival,” staging a lovely, engaging, heartfelt production of “Porgy and Bess,” a musical that, to paraphrase Mark Twain’s description of a classic, everybody praises but no one ever stages.   

Operatic aspirations are replaced with the accessibility, theatricality and showbiz savvy of a Broadway musical in Diane Paulus’ bright, beautiful and tuner-centric re-envisioning of “Porgy and Bess.”  

The ART’s vibrant and stirring production of “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess’’ makes some revisions, but Paulus and adapters Suzan-Lori Parks and Dierdre L. Murray are largely faithful to the spirit and the structure of the original. And in Audra McDonald, this production boasts a Bess for the ages.  

We regret to inform you that the Sunday, August 28 matinee performance of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess has been cancelled due to the impending storm and concern for our patrons travelling to the area for the performance. 
PLEASE NOTE: Saturday’s performances of The Donkey Show and The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess will take place as scheduled

The A.R.T. Takes on the Gershwins’ Classic and Preps it for Broadway