Audra McDonald Says Porgy and Bess is like a squid...

[broadwaybabytn]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 7:55pm

Tonight on PBS. Can't find a link, but just watched it.

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 7:56pm

Is this a good thing?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 7:57pm

Funny, I've always though of it more like a Bluefin Tuna.

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 7:58pm

I'd go with monkfish.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 7:59pm

Yeah, I can definitely see that.

[broadwaybabytn]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 8:00pm

To paraphrase, she said it was 'like a giant squid, alway writhing around and avoiding categorization. Some people want to call it an opera, some want to call it a musical, but it says no!'
Updated On: 9/26/11 at 08:00 PM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 8:01pm

How do squids say no?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 8:01pm

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 8:02pm

To paraphrase, she said it was 'like a giant squid, alway writhing around and avoiding categorization. Some people want to call it a musical, some want to call it a musical, but it says no!'

But only the best-tasting musicals get to be StarKist.

[broadwaybabytn]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 8:04pm

"People have been trying to put it in a box for all these years, I don't mean put it away, but shove it into you know: It's an opera, it's a musical, it's — I think, it just continues to defy. It's this sort of big large squid that just plopping out (gesturing madly) that's like NO! I'm all of these things!"

The actual quote...
The actual link...

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 8:06pm

Quotes never interest me. What matters is the squid.
Updated On: 9/26/11 at 08:06 PM

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 8:07pm

Jesus, the actual quote makes it sound like a Ray Harryhausen sci-fi drive-in flick.

Updated On: 9/26/11 at 08:07 PM

[Kad]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 8:08pm

Porgy and Bess is like a giant squid... people only knew it existed because of the rotten carcasses that washed up on shore once and a while.

...it was mythical until captured on film by the Japanese in 2004.

...it is a favorite prey of sperm whales and Stephen Sondheim.

...it has eyes the size of dinner plates.

...it appeared in a Jules Verne novel.

...it was rumored to exist by 18th century British sailors.

...it is preserved in ice in some museum.

[broadwaybabytn]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 8:09pm

Here's the new ad...
Is this thread rascist?

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 8:10pm

Audra's new "Porgy and Bess" poster ...

Updated On: 9/28/11 at 08:10 PM

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 8:18pm

This Poor Unfortunate Soul wants some calamari now!!!! Damn you Audra!

[broadwaybabytn]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 8:21pm

I have an idea! Hire Sherie Rene Scott! She can play the squid, do the book, whatever.

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 8:33pm

Did she film this before the Sondheim response? Has she learned nothing?

[SondheimFan5]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 8:51pm

"I'm just a squid who cain't say no!"

[A Director]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 10:29pm

I've been told tenors never use their brains, but after reading her comment, it obvious Ms McDonald doesn't either.

Someone should call her on her crap and point out that George Gershwin called Porgy and Bess an OPERA. In Audraworld, poor old George didn't know what he had written. After all these years, it took four women at ART to fix it.

[justoldbill]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 9:53pm

One begins to wonder if the key to her terrific voice entails having resonance where her brains ought to be. Gershwin called his work a "folk opera". Done, and done.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 10:05pm

How can she call it a squid? It's definitely a porgy.

[egghumor]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 10:09pm

Yeah, Dolly. Some years back when scholars were examining Gershwin's notes while writing the famous squid, I mean opera, they discovered the working title was actually PORGIE AND BASS.

[ChiChi]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 10:18pm

I want to see this so badly!

[justoldbill]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 10:31pm

Truth to tell, some years back the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston did a concert of selections from the opera called PORGY AND BASS. The poster was delightful. The (actual) porgy was in an empty sardine can pulled by a snail (no goat here, either), and the (actual) bass wore a calico bandana. The audience at the bottom of the poster consisted of a row of catfish. (Get it?)

Updated On: 9/28/11 at 10:31 PM