photo by Michael J. Lutch
Audra McDonald as Bess & Norm Lewis as Porgy
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The new Broadway revival of the Gershwins’—and the Heywards’—“Porgy and Bess” at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, for a limited engagement?—you’ll hiss the villains and root and fret for the heroes; sometimes you’ll cry; mostly, you’ll love being there, as I did.
Whatever you’ve heard about the violence allegedly done to George and Ira Gershwin and DuBose and Dorothy Heyward’s “Porgy and Bess” by director Diane Paulus and adaptors Suzan-Lori Parks and Diedre L. Murray, in turning a three-act opera into a two-act Broadway musical, the most obvious changes amount to little more than the likes of making Clara’s opening solo, “Summertime,” into a duet for Clara and Jake; adding the divorce document dialogue—originally the province of lawyer Frazier, a role that is eliminated—to Maria—here, Mariah’s—assignment, just after she’s told off Sporting Life; and giving Porgy a cane and a leg brace, to walk with, instead of a goat-drawn cart, to drive, which constitute, if you think about it, almost equally impossibly optimistic vehicles for his voyage from Catfish Row, Charleston, South Carolina, to New York City.
Under Constantine Kitsopoulos’ baton and Paulus’ direction, Audra McDonald gives us a portrait of a Bess, who goes through changes and puts us through them as well. Haunted and haunting, she’s addicted to dope, abetted by pusher Sporting Life; to Crown’s muscular magnetism; and to flashy clothes that, thanks to costumer ESosa, virtual fall off her body. McDonald makes palpable the hurt that Bess feels when Crown mistreats her and when the residents of tight-knit Catfish Row snub her, and clearly conveys how much that makes her distrust the love and acceptance, the safe harbor, that Porgy and his community offer, however much she craves them. Whether or not she’s permitted to cradle Clara’s baby becomes a gauge of the extent to which she is or isn’t trusted by the good folk of Catfish Row. She’s also stopped from donating to the burial fund for Robbins (Nathaniel Stampley), but is the one who ultimately speaks out and convinces undertaker Mingo (J.D. Webster) to settle for the $15 collected, even as she’s been cowering in a corner, covered by Porgy’s jacket, to avoid the questions the police have about Crown. McDonald’s “What You Want with Bess (She’s gettin’ old now)” becomes her desperate bid to wrench herself free of Crown’s toxic influence—again; her “I Loves You, Porgy,” her frank admission of her continued attraction to and her agreement with Crown, although she knows he’s a destructive force in her life; and her own reprise of “Summertime,” vocal purity itself.
In Norm Lewis’ “I’ve Got Plenty of Nothing,” his glow, as Porgy, shows that he’s indeed getting something, and that having Bess in his life has put a figurative, and vocal, spring in his step. Although it’s Bess who puts Mariah’s knife in his hand, it is ultimately he who simultaneously deals Crown the death blow and a boost to his own self-esteem. You’ll love Lewis and McDonald, who seem made for each other, when they join forces for duets “Bess, You Is My Woman Now” and the aforementioned “I Loves You, Porgy.” You’ll also love to hate Christopher Innvar and Joseph Dellger as ‘the Man’—the white police officers—who invade Catfish Row and investigate its goings on, lawful and not, and never more than when they kick poor lame Porgy and take away his leg brace and cane.
In David Alan Grier’s Sporting Life, you get as slick-talking a snake oil salesman as you would want, knocking the Bible in “It Ain’t Necessarily So” and tempting Bess in “There’s a Boat That’s Leaving Soon (for New York).” In Philip Boykin’s suitably macho bass-baritone Crown, you get the kind of irreverent individual who wouldn’t think twice about interrupting the fearful faithful’s prayer “Oh, the Lord Shake the Heaven,” during the storm, with a lewd honky-tonk number, “A Red-Headed Woman,” and would bully Porgy and mock his disability by imitating the way he walks.
Bryonha Marie Parham, as Serena, delivers a dramatic, wrenching “My Man’s Gone Now.” She retrieves her Bible from Sporting Life by sticking a large fork in his posterior. NaTasha Yvette Williams stops the show with her spoken ‘aria,’ “I Hates Your Strutting Style,” telling Sporting Life just exactly what she thinks of him. Nikki Renée Daniels and Joshua Henry, as Clara and Jake, lend attractive lyric voices to “Summertime,” which Henry follows up by leading the ensemble in “A Woman Is a Sometime Thing” as a good-natured battle of the sexes. Andrea Jones-Sojola, Phumzile Sojola, and Cedric Neal add atmosphere as, respectively, the strawberry woman, Peter the honey man, and the crab man, hawking their wares.
The full company makes the most of production numbers “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down,” before the picnic, and the one at the picnic on Kittawah Island, choreographed by Ronald K. Brown, which McDonald joins in, relieved, for a good reason, of her baby-sitting duties. Her final attempt to kick the “happy dust” habit, and the lengths her craving drives her to, as witnessed by Mariah, seal the question of any role the baby might come to play in her life. Catfish Row itself is, deliberately, an anything but picturesque thing of shreds and patches, as devised by designer Riccardo Hernandez, sketchy, but sufficient. Lighting designer Christopher Akerlind’s greatest moment to shine is the storm scene. This American Repertory Theater production of “Porgy and Bess” originated at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Visit www.PorgyAndBessOnBroadway.com or www.Ticketmaster.com, also at telephone number 877/250-2929, for tickets. The Richard Rodgers Theatre is located at 226 West 46th Street, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue.