It is THE great American opera and is performed by opera companies around the country and the world very frequently (though it's not quite made it into the standard canon).
I saw the last Broadway revival at Radio City back in '83 (as well as the Met production and a few others over the years). I wonder if it's too expensive to mount on Broadway under the present economics and do justice to it. Similar to the Luhrman La Boheme, the leads have to be triple cast if you're doing eight shows a week and the ensemble and orchestra demands are enormous. While it's possible to do a reduction, I worry at how much you lose in the process. The Radio City production featured a cast of 90+ (impossible for Broadway) and it only ran a little over a month (though it was a limited engagement as I recall).
Perhaps Lincoln Center or other not-for profit could attempt it (possibly as a co-production with another large theatre, or theatres, around the country) to make it more economically viable. Otherwise, the Met production that comes up every few seasons is quite good.
Of today's Broadway singers, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Chuck Cooper and Audra MacDonald would be obvious choices -- with ample amplification, they should be able to handle the score's demands (I doubt any of them could do it unamplified in a real opera house with a 60 piece orchestra, though). I'd also love to track down Michel Bell who was such a great Joe in the last revivial of Showboat. As Sportin Life, I'd be curious to see what Cleavant Derricks or Andre De Shields would do with the role.
Porgy and Bess was a money-loser in its original Broadway incarnation and has never really set the box office on fire in any of its many revivals since then. Nevertheless, I'd love to see a limited engagement of it sometime. It's arguably the greatest musical composition ever created by an American composer.
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
Updated On: 10/26/04 at 07:49 PM
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