Skip to main content
My Shows
News on your favorite shows, specials & more!

Audra McDonald In Talks for Porgy and Bess at American Repertory Theater

Welcome Guest. Please Login or Register.

#4

Audra McDonald In Talks for Porgy and Bess at American Repertory Theater

If she plays Bess, she wouldn't be singing "My Man's Gone Now." Serena sings that.

This part of the article arouses equal parts of curiosity and dread:

...the new production, which is being re-imagined...as a musical for contemporary audiences.

"The Gershwin and Heyward estates have given us the charge to create a version of Porgy and Bess that will have a unique identity as a musical," Paulus said in a previous statement. "I am delighted to be working with Suzan-Lori Parks on making the characters in the story more fully realized. With one of the most incredible scores ever written, we want to bring Porgy and Bess to life on the musical stage in a way that feels essential, immediate, and passionate."

Parks added, "Our approach is fresh and respectful; we're working to retain all the best-loved elements of the original while crafting a piece that speaks to contemporary audiences." Murray stated that the new production would move the work "forward on its continuum, re-envisioning it for a modern perspective."

#5

Audra McDonald In Talks for Porgy and Bess at American Repertory Theater

I don't want Suzan Lori Parks anywhere near this masterpiece.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#8

Audra McDonald In Talks for Porgy and Bess at American Repertory Theater

You missed my point entirely. P&B is NOT elitist, intellectual crap. It is a popular that people actually want to see. The folks who have supported A.R.T. for many years have complained recently that Diane Paulus is doing too much "popular" stuff, and not enough "risky" or "experiemntal" work. Meanwhile, ticket sales are up more than 50% under her direction.
#10

Audra McDonald In Talks for Porgy and Bess at American Repertory Theater

I have to say that whenever I have seen this work done by a theatre company, or anybody who feels it needs to be trimmed or edited, it somehow always seems to end up feeling slower and longer. Give me a grand opera production of this piece with a full orchestra, giant chorus, and every glorious note Gershwin wrote.
#13

Audra McDonald In Talks for Porgy and Bess at American Repertory Theater

AEA -

Chicago Lyric Opera is doing a full version next season, possibly around the same time at the ART.

I'm not opposed to updating musicals or operas, per se, but it seems that a musical written as a social commentary on a particular time probably shouldn't have it's time period shifted. But... maybe there's something I'm missing or don't understand (not uncommon).
#14

Audra McDonald In Talks for Porgy and Bess at American Repertory Theater

Audra confirmed her involvement in this at the opening night party for Priscilla.

http://www.broadway.com/buzz/155719/four-time-tony-winner-audra-mcdonald-eyes-return-to-broadway-in-porgy-and-bess/
Butters, go buy World of Warcraft, install it on your computer, and join the online sensation before we all murder you. --Cartman: South Park ATTENTION FANS: I will be played by James Barbour in the upcoming musical, "BroadwayWorld: The Musical."

BroadwayWorld TV


Ticket Central
Hot Show
Tickets From $59
Hot Show
Tickets From $95
Hot Show
Tickets From $77
Hot Show
Tickets From $192