Riedel: PORGY AND BESS canceling Broadway run?- Page 6

[marknyc]

Posted: 9/9/11 at 1:11pm

But this is not a reduction, which is common and expected.

This is a wholesale scrapping of Gershwin's score, replacing it with entirely new (and lousy) orchestrations.

[raker]

Posted: 9/9/11 at 1:57pm

I said I wouldn't quibble but I can't resist. They ought to lose the real-live baby in the first act. For one thing, it's a little distracting. And much was made of changing Summertime because, "after all" they said, "it's a lullaby." The actress sings it beautifully, but she holds the baby in the crook of her arm off to her right, and turns her head up and to her left when she sings, as though the song has nothing to do with the baby. Presumably this is so she won't sing this big song into the face of a so-far-so-good quiet baby. She looks off to the horizon as she sings looking blissful, as though she can’t believe her luck living here on Catfish Row (in a set designed to evoke a pigpen, I think.) It did not come across as a sad, mournful, ironic lullaby, or any sort of lullaby at all.

[EdwinBooth]

Posted: 9/9/11 at 4:18pm

Totally agree about cutting the live baby. The audience audibly
oohs and aahs over the kid (who does look adorable) and can't focus on the music. It's one of those ideas that sounds great but should have been cut long ago in previews.

And also concur on the wretched orchestrations.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 9/9/11 at 4:22pm

I, also, totally agree about cutting the live baby.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/9/11 at 4:25pm

Me too. But do it in a sacrificial way.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 9/9/11 at 4:33pm

Kali Ma...

Kali Ma...

Kali Ma Shakti de!

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/9/11 at 4:35pm

"BESS, YOU IS MY WOMAN NOW!!!!!"

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 9/9/11 at 4:46pm

[photoshopped image of Mola Ram with Norm Lewis' face]

(I can't photoshop from work.)

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/9/11 at 4:50pm

I don't have photoshop either, otherwise I would have been all over that.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 9/9/11 at 4:54pm

How did this turn into a thread about cutting babies?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/9/11 at 4:57pm

That baby had it coming. It knows what it did.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 9/9/11 at 4:59pm

^This.

And every thread is really about cutting babies... way down deep.

[dshnookie]

Posted: 9/9/11 at 8:35pm

I checked this to see if there had been any updates on the transfer, imagine my shock at reading about cutting babies.

Not that I'm complaining.

[AEA AGMA SM]

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

Clearly Jordan and Growl are not members of H.O.O.P. They are all about NOT cutting babies.

[My Oh My]

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

"There are virtually no strings - apparently William David Brohn and Christopher Jahnke prefer piano, accordion, and reeds, because that's mainly what they use."

Christopher Jahnke seems to be the go-to person to ruin classic scores. His completely revised orchestrations for the Les Miserables revival were an embarrassment and sucked the music of any harmony and beauty.

It is infuriating what they're doing to Porgy and Bess. This has to stop.

Updated On: 9/9/11 at 09:33 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/9/11 at 10:30pm

And I want that goat put back in the show.

Message to Diane Paulus: CUT BABY--BRING BACK GOAT!

[fakemyway2thetop]

Posted: 9/9/11 at 11:16pm

Michael Riedel is disgusting.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/10/11 at 1:33am

Look, if you all could stop picking on this, Diane really had her heart set on another Tony. She would thank you in advance if she were here.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 9/10/11 at 2:11am

^ Seriously. Oscar Hammerstein did that same thing to Carmen and no one bitches about that.

[marknyc]

Posted: 9/10/11 at 3:31am

Absolutely no comparison. "Carmen Jones" couldn't be a more different case than this. It was presented as an obvious re-interpretation of "Carmen" and billed as "Oscar Hammerstein's Carmen Jones", not like this production which is billed as "The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess". No one thought they were seeing or hearing "Carmen" when they saw Hammerstein's production. Many people who see this P&B think they're seeing the real thing - they're not. It's a pale shadow of a great work.

And BTW, the music in "Carmen Jones" was not butchered:

"Although Oscar Hammerstein II translated the libretto for Georges Bizet's opera Carmen from French into English for his Broadway production, "The music was pretty much left intact," explains Arts and Entertainment Editor Elisabeth Vincentelli."

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/10/11 at 7:11am

Maybe they should have called this "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess Jones."

"Porgy and Bess 2.0?"

"Porgy and Bess Remixed?"

Updated On: 9/10/11 at 07:11 AM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/10/11 at 9:34am

Or like those CDs I used to see at Target all the time - "The Starlight Orchestra Presents Selections From Porgy & Bess"

[justoldbill]

Posted: 9/10/11 at 11:27am

Or like those books I used to see at Borders - "Porgy And Bess For Dummies".

[pinoyidol2006]

Posted: 9/10/11 at 10:03pm

If people were to judge the Broadway community by this particular page....

Anyway, I did a Google check to see if this page comes up when you search "cutting babies."

Updated On: 9/10/11 at 10:03 PM

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 9/12/11 at 1:23pm

Well, tickets are now on sale for the Broadway run, so I guesss it is transferring.