Porgy And Bess 1st Preview

I went to the invited dress last night! Unfortunately, I didn't make it out to see it in Boston, so I'm afraid I won't be great at drawing comparisons as to what did or didn't change since its initial run. I will say that the production is beautifully sung, and that Norm and Audra give two winning performances as Porgy and Bess. The ensemble is strong, and the featured members, particularly Nikki Renee Daniels and Joshua Henry, come across very well. The choreography looked a little strange to my eyes, and felt rather forced any time it happened, but this will probably be smoothed out over the next few weeks. Orchestra sounded good, not great, which was surprising, but it's a dress rehearsal so it's rude to nitpick them too much. However, I'm sure after yesterday's run of the overture, some of the members went home and practiced on their own a bit.

Overall, the plot drudges around slowly initially, and the show feels completely unfocused for the first 45 minutes. This, however, is the way the original feels to me as well. Leaving the theater, I did not quite know what opinion I held of what I'd just seen, which was also my reaction to "On A Clear Day..." if that holds any merit of comparison.

:-/

From looking at pictures from A.R.T, the set seems to have remained similar - lots of wood, lots of ambiguity. Ms. Paulus prefaced the rehearsal saying that some drops had not been installed yet and there there were 8 hours of tech left to do before Saturday night's performance.

i was planning on trying to grab a ticket this weekend but they appear to be sold out

I'll be there next week :) So excited.

This whole thing strikes me as something that would interest only diehard musical theater or opera fans, not general audiences. Unless critics are over-the-moon about his production (and how likely is that? and even then...) I think they'll have a hard time completing a limited run -- not unlike Follies.

Audra alone is enough to sell me a ticket. Could easily be tony number 5

sooo who saw it and wants to share?

Dont' know what show you saw, Buddy. Follies is the strongest show in bway right now.

As for Porgy, we await the reviews.

^Spider-man

I saw it tonight.

Diane Paulus has to be the worst director on Broadway. How can anyone take this glorious music and Audra McDonald and make them seem bland?

Ask Diane!

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Diane Paulus is remarkably similar to Julie Taymor when interviewed. and that's not a good thing. I love Hair, and her production of that left a lot to be desired.

Hey, Blaxx! I would love to "elaborate"...especially for you (long-time fan here). However, in order to do so, I would have to plunge head-first into the lukewarm cesspool of blandness in Ms. Paulus's backyard, which would require my being thoughtful, fair, engaging, witty, passionate, seductive, colorful, empathetic, pointed, exciting, skillful and communicative in my public commentary. (Perhaps not ALL of these, but one or two wouldn't be bad.)

In other words, in my effort to enlighten, connect or simply share ideas with my fellow theatre-lovers, you would like me to be all of the things in the creation of my meaningless post on BroadwayWorld.com (no offense, guys!) that Ms. Paulus *should have been* in the mounting of this major revival of an internationally revered modern opera.

I, an anonymous message board member, should spend time (for which I am not paid nor considered an "expert" in my field) trying to "recreate" for the reader the extremely bland blandness of Diane Paulus. You know, the director of this multi-million-dollar BROADWAY production of an American masterpiece by the 20th Century's Stephen Sondheim (and his big brother) that stars none-other than 4-time Tony Award (little "r-in-a-circle" inserted here, slightly raised) winner Audra McDonald. The musical's director with a completely sold-out Broadway house, seats in which cost people actual money to occupy (little "r-in-a-circle" inserted here, slightly raised) for a couple of hours.

Why should I spend any time trying to make Diane Paulus interesting when SHE didn't spend any time trying to make freaking PORGY AND BESS interesting?

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