Theater Review: ‘The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess’

NEW YORK—The latest Broadway incarnation of the 1935 folk opera Porgy and Bess, here titled The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, (by George Gershwin, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward and Ira Gershwin, adapted by Suzan-Lori Parks and Diedre L. Murray) may have been edited somewhat in order to make it more palatable to today’s audiences, at least according to numerous reports, but there’s no denying the underlying impact of the central story: It shows a class of people beaten down by life, whose only strength comes from their ultimate belief in salvation and their love and respect for one another.

The story takes place on Catfish Row in 1930s Charleston, S.C., the enclave’s African-American inhabitants working mostly as fisherman or in the cotton fields. The main form of entertainment among the men is a Saturday night dice game, an experience that also includes a lot of drinking.

Among the Catfish Row denizens are Crown (Phillip Boykin), a big brute of man, and his woman Bess (Audra McDonald), a lady looked down on by the other women for her fancy clothes and highfalutin attitude. Bess and Crown are also heavy drug users, enjoying vials of “happiness dust” (cocaine), dispensed by Sporting Life (David Alan Grier), a sharp-dressing gambler who alternates his time between Catfish Row and places up North.

Crown also has a short temper, and a gambling dispute ends with him killing someone, forcing him to flee to escape the law. With no one else willing to take her in, Bess finds sanctuary with Porgy (Norm Lewis), a crippled beggar who always had a soft spot for her, though he never admitted it.

It’s not long before Porgy and Bess start to fall in love. Porgy’s generosity and kindness slowly get beneath Bess’s tough exterior. However, Crown is determined to return and claim what he left behind. Bess must also battle against the temptation offered by Sporting Life, who entices her not only with his happiness mixture but also with the promise of a big-city life with him in New York.

While the musical’s idea of how the love of a good man can reform a fallen woman may not be politically correct, its themes of love, faith, poverty, racism, and the evils of one’s baser instincts are all pointed and powerful.

The work is peopled with characters who all resonate emotionally. Things take a few minutes to get going, and the show has a bit of a hurried feeling at times as it tries to shoehorn in all the plot and songs that it can, but once the cast launches into A Woman Is a Sometime Thing, everything comes wonderfully alive.

Norm Lewis makes a fantastic Porgy and will hopefully earn a Tony nomination for the role. A cripple who no woman will look at twice, there is a quiet dignity about him, as well as a great deal of anger and rage. He will also not allow himself to be taken advantage of by anyone. At the same time, he is capable of great love and caring. Lewis also has a strong and expressive singing voice, such as with I Got Plenty of Nothing, showing a man in complete and contented satisfaction.

McDonald cuts a strong figure as Bess, a hard-edged, cynical woman who rarely lets her guard down, the result being even more affecting when she does allow herself to acknowledge what she feels for Porgy and how much she needs him.

Her struggles with her own demons and often resigned attitude are quite heartbreaking. Look for Bess’s reaction in an understated moment of wonder when one of the Catfish Row women wishes her a simple good morning.

Boykin cuts a menacing figure as Crown, a man accustomed to taking what he wants. Grier is fine as Sporting Life, the most malicious character in the show, whose jokes, dancing, and singing charm most everyone he meets. Grier’s rendition of It Ain’t Necessarily So is a comic highlight. At the same time, his seductive ways with fast talk and hard drugs show the darker persona underneath.

NaTasha Yvette Williams is excellent as Mariah, the unofficial mother figure of Catfish Row, putting all of her personality in a brilliant delivery of I Hates Your Strutting Style.

Nikki Renée Daniels is nicely compelling as Clara, a wife and mother praying for the survival of her husband in a hurricane, the storm nicely delivered via special effects by sound designers Acme Sound Partners and lighting designer Christopher Akerlind.

Choreography by Ronald K. Brown is excellent, especially personified via Sporting Life’s dance sequences and A Woman Is a Sometime Thing.

The Gershwin score (Summertime, There’s a Boat That’s Leaving Soon, I’m on My Way) is wonderful, with the cast powerfully delivering the various tunes.

Orchestrations by William David Brohn and Christopher Jahnke are superb. Direction by Diane Paulus is strong, allowing the cast to quickly and naturally find their voices. The final scenes of the show are especially well-handled, being alternatively uplifting and painful to watch.

Set by Riccardo Hernandez is OK, but it would have been nice to see some more local flavor from the exteriors shown rather than it only coming from the characters. Costumes by Emilio Sosa feel nicely authentic.

This new version of Porgy and Bess is a glorious sight to behold, and if not quite perfect, as some theater purists may point out, it will surely do till another comes along.

Also in the cast are Joshua Henry, J.D. Webster, Bryonha Marie Parham, Nathaniel Stampley, Christopher Innvar, Joseph Dellger, Andrea Jones-Sojola, Phumzile Sojola, Cedric Neal, Roosevelt André Credit, Trevon Davis, Wilkie Ferguson III, Allison Blackwell, Heather Hill, Alicia Hall Moran, and Lisa Nicole Wilkerson.

The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess
Richard Rodgers Theatre
226 West 46th Street
Tickets: 877-250-2929 or www.ticketmaster.com
Running Time: 2 hours, 35 minutes
Closes: July 8

Judd Hollander is the New York correspondent for the London publication The Stage.