Porgy and Bess Program [pdf] - American Repertory Theater

Courtesy of Ira and
Leonore Gershwin Trusts
Institute on the Federal Theatre Project and
New Deal Culture, George Mason University
Todd Duncan and
Anne Brown
Porgy and Bess:
Reinvention and Restagings
By Jenna Clark Embrey
September 30, 1935: Colonial Theatre, Boston
On the opening night of Porgy and Bess, George Gershwin receives a fifteenminute
standing ovation. Despite the applause, director Rouben Mamoulian
paces Boston Common with Gershwin until 3 o’clock in the morning and tries
to convince him to make cuts to the almost four-hour production. Before the
show transfers to Broadway, Gershwin agrees to cut 45 minutes from the score.
October 10, 1935: Alvin Theatre, New York City
Porgy and Bess opens on Broadway starring Todd Duncan (Porgy), Anne
Brown (Bess), and John Bubbles (Sportin’ Life). Some critics deride the work as
either a too-populist opera or an overly ambitious piece of musical
theater. Others laud the work—Brooks Atkinson writes in the New
York Times, “Mr. Gershwin has contributed something glorious.…A
resounding new sound in American theater.” The production runs
for 124 performances.
March 21, 1936: National Theatre, Washington D.C.
When the national tour makes its final stop in Washington, D.C.,
Todd Duncan will not perform unless the National Theatre forgoes
its policy of white-only audiences. The theater’s manager, S.E. Cochran, refuses. Duncan holds his
ground, even under threat of a ten-thousand dollar fine from the Theatre Guild. Finally, Cochran
relents, and the National Theatre allows integrated audiences for the first time.
1956 Breen-Davis
Tour Warsaw poster
Picnic time: “Oh, I Can’t Sit
Down” (Vandamm Studio, NYC)
January 22, 1942: Majestic Theatre, New York City
Cheryl Crawford directs a streamlined Broadway revival with Todd Duncan
and Anne Brown reprising their roles as Porgy and Bess. Crawford replaces
the recitatives with spoken dialogue and reduces the orchestra by half. The
musical theater-style revival runs for a record 286 performances.
March 23, 1943: Danish Royal Opera, Copenhagen
The European premiere opens in Copenhagen with an all-white cast in blackface,
during the Nazi occupation. The Gestapo strongly disapproves of this
American work about blacks and written by a Jew, and orders the theater to
close the production. The Royal Opera only shuts down the show after the
Gestapo threatens to bomb the theater. Later, the Danish underground jams
Nazi radio broadcasts with recordings of “It Ain’t Necessarily So.”
1952–1956: International Tour
Director Robert Breen and producer Blevins Davis take a new production
of Porgy and Bess on an international tour, which is funded in part by the
U.S. Department of State. Leontyne Price (Bess), William Warfield (Porgy),
Cab Calloway (Sportin’ Life), and Maya Angelou (ensemble) all perform in
the production. After playing in Berlin, London, Athens, Cairo, New York,
and the famed Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the company arrives in the Soviet
Union. Performances in Leningrad and Moscow prove to be a hit with
Russian audiences, and the show sells out.
1952 Breen-Davis Tour
June 24, 1959: The Samuel Goldwyn Company, Hollywood Chicago
Porgy and Bess makes it to the big screen, though critics are underwhelmed.
Despite the star power of Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Diahann Carroll and
THE GERSHWINS’ PORGY AND BESS 21
Courtesy of Ira and
Leonore Gershwin Trusts
Institute on the Federal Theatre Project and
New Deal Culture, George Mason University