Media Archive

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  

A.R.T. musical is Broadway bound

Reinventing an American Classic with Stronger Title Characters and a More Upbeat Ending  

“The American Repertory Theater has announced its full 2011-2012 season, which will launch with the previously announced production of Porgy and Bess, starring Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis. Also planned are world premieres of Futurity: A Musical by The Lisps and a play based on Jung Chang’s Wild Swans.” – Playbill.com

“American Repertory Theatre has announced its 2011-2012 season for the Loeb Drama Center, which, as previously announced, will open with The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, running August 17 – October 2. Diane Paulus will direct the production that will star Norm Lewis and Audra McDonald in the title roles.” – TheaterMania 

It is hard to come up with another American company whose creative footprint at the moment is making such a deep impression on the country’s theater. 

“Porgy and Bess,” a show about black people, created entirely by white people, has never been a favorite of black audience. Diane Paulus’s great achievement is to cut through Heyward’s muddy folklore and to present us with us something more profound. Her Porgy (the beautiful Norm Lewis) and Bess are not archetypal “black lovers”; they are a man and a woman, human beings who are not defined by their race.  By ridding the script of its sociological and anthropological strain, Paulus allows us to see the people and, perforce, to hear the music.    

The Paulus-Parks Porgy is a streamlined, intimate, musically ravishing show…..faithful to what counts most – Gershwin’s lush, bluesy, irreplacable score.  That makes it a revival not to hound but to hail. 

“Greater Boston” takes an in-depth look at the production and talks to the cast and creative team of Porgy and Bess to find out their opinions on the changes made to the piece. The special feature also captures a glimpse into the production that currently plays at the Loeb Drama Center and offers a series of extended interviews with McDonald, Lewis and director Paulus.

Dear Mr. Sondheim. It ain’t necessarily so. While purists, pundits, preservationists and scholars may have qualms about the revised production of The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess which had its official pre-Broadway press opening at the A.R.T. in Cambridge, Mass. on August 31, mere mortals who have no preconceived notions of how the work “should” be presented are in for a thrilling night of musical theater. Powerful, imaginative, and gloriously cast, this intimate yet soaring Porgy and Bess is both timeless and full of life.