Sondheim vs. Porgy & Bess - YIKES!- Page 11

Posted: 8/12/11 at 10:16pm

I did some research last night and discovered this (not sure if it is 100% accurate, and if anyone has more information please feel free to add it.

ALL musicals by the Gershwin brothers are currently licensed as "THE GERSHWINS' [insert title here]".

The same is true for all Rodgers and Hammerstein shows (the recent revival was "Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific, look at the playbill) and Irving Berlin shows (Irving Berlin's White Christmas).

While I agree with Sondheim that it is sad that Heyward's work is not taken into account with the billing, I do not fault the producers if the liscencing agreement is the reason this production has "The Gershwins'..." in the title."

And let's not forget that Sondheim's musicals are almost always now credited to him alone, I know the Company screenings were all billed as "Stephen Sondheim's Company". He HAS spoken out against this a number of times, but the fact remains.

[A Director]

Posted: 8/13/11 at 3:28am

Here's a link to A.R.T. Guide their new musical "Porgy and Bess." I feel nobody working on this production understand the opera.

http://www.americanrepertorytheater.org/files/images/highres/ARTPorgyBessGuide.swf

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 8/13/11 at 10:24am

Oh yes, I got this in the mail. The part where the orchestrator says, "Why is she singing so high? She'll wake the baby"?..nice little statement there.

[AC126748]

Posted: 8/13/11 at 10:29am

As someone over on All That Chat said, that comment about waking the baby sounds like it was lifted straight from a Christopher Guest movie.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/13/11 at 10:38am

If George Gershwin were alive today, I feel quite sure that he would say to that orchestrator, "Bitch, leave the song in the same goddamn key! The baby's F*CKing USED to it."

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/13/11 at 10:47am

I'm beginning to think Corky St. Clair is directing this.

He'll work hard to make sure all those poor black people are speaking "correckly."

Dare we even hope for Porgy & Bess action figures and lunch boxes?

Please?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 8/13/11 at 11:56am

So, basically, this thing has been in constant state of revisal since its inception. What's the big deal?

I didn't take away that nobody working on the show understands it, but maybe that's just me.

[Brick]

Posted: 8/13/11 at 12:25pm

I think what's so shocking here is that they're treating every instance for revisal like a chance to save a flawed work, instead of working on a masterpiece and giving it the benefit of the doubt.

For example, in the Playbill article, Paulus says, "[I]t's not clear in the opera why Porgy is a cripple. There's one line, 'God made me to be lonely.' He's displayed in a cart, and there's no real explanation of why he is that way." (In this production, Porgy uses a cane.)

"When you look at the source material in the novel, it's clear he was born this way. We added four words — 'I'm crippled from birth.' It's not an accident in which something happened to him as an adult. A handful of words give a specificity to his character."

Um, he did say. "God made me lonely" means "God made me a cripple". He was using a euphemism, but most people would understand that. He doesn't need to sing a Gaga song about it.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/13/11 at 6:26pm

What these idiots don't seem to understand is that "God made me to be lonely" is poetry.

Audiences for millennia have understood poetry to be metaphorical and to say one thing and suggest another.

These stupid idiots don't understand that Porgy doesn't NEED to say "I'm crippled from from birth."

It's BETTER and MORE BEAUTIFUL for him to say "God made me to be lonely."

Paulus should know better.

Updated On: 8/13/11 at 06:26 PM

[AC126748]

Posted: 8/13/11 at 6:30pm

I wonder what new dialogue we're going to get about Bess' drug addiction...

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/13/11 at 6:31pm

Maybe they've changed the lyric to "There's a boat that's leaving soon for Rehab."

[AC126748]

Posted: 8/13/11 at 6:33pm

Or maybe they'll just have her sing Amy Winehouse's "Rehab"--Winehouse was an alto, so it won't be too high.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 8/13/11 at 10:43pm

I'm beginning to think the out-of-school comments from the collaborators are going to be more entertaining than their show.

[A Director]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 4:58am

Stupidity is alive and well at A.R. T. May the production FAIL and never make it to Broadway!

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 6:02am

I don't think I'd have such an allergic reaction to what they're doing if they hadn't given such an asinine reason for doing it.

I'm glad they didn't get their hands on West Side Story ... or we'd have the William Warfield/Bea Arthur version of "Tonight," to ensure the lovers didn't disturb their neighbors while singing on the fire escape.

And you can be sure Eliza Doolittle wouldn't have "danced all night" in that key. She would have woken up the entire Higgins household staff. Just not acceptable!

Then, of course, there's their brilliantly realistic staging of the "Soliloquy" in Carousel, where Billy Bigelow is handcuffed and hauled away for disturbing the peace at the end of Act I.

Updated On: 8/14/11 at 06:02 AM

[sam_n]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 6:50am

Come now, best12bars. "Soliloquy" will have to be completely rewritten first in order to make it more palatable to a modern audience. All that sexist stuff about wanting a son will be replaced by lyrics that stress female empowerment. Think of it as "Carousel" for the "Wicked" generation.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 7:02am

I wonder if all the houses in Catfish Row will be made out of real catfish ... you know, all in a row.

And Porgy? That's just not a realistic name. We'll call him "Porky" and put Norm Lewis in a fat suit. Aren't most crippled people fat anyway? It's more realistic.

Porky & Bess

[HistoryBoy2]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 7:12am

And who's called Bess these days? No one I've ever met, that's who. Need more realism.

Porky & Mindy

[bobbybaby85]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 3:34pm

Updated On: 2/20/18 at 03:34 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 3:46pm

When did he get his panties in a bundle? I think I missed that part of the story.

[bobbybaby85]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 3:57pm

Updated On: 2/20/18 at 03:57 PM

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 4:04pm

Bobbybaby, you are missing so much of the story. Yes PORGY... never mae any money on Broadway, but that is a small part of it's history. Breaking race lines all over the world, including Vienna and Moscow when an all-black cast was unheard of. In our country (USA) it also broke the boundries in Washington DC where theatres were not segregated before (or after) it's triumphant run. If the show was such a clinker, as you say, it would have never lasted this long and performed as often as it is. It has prodiced a half dozen standards recorded by most major singers in the world.
And like so many others, you are missing the point that re-thinking and adjusting the show is not what's bothering folks the most. It is the wording of the new team and their reasons for changes.

[bobbybaby85]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 4:14pm

Updated On: 2/20/18 at 04:14 PM

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 4:35pm

I guess I don't agree with what seems to be your basic premise: that the work's worth is to be measured by its success on the Broadway stage.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 4:41pm

You're seriously comparing "Carrie" to "Porgy and Bess" as equal works?

LOL