The Tony Awards melange:
I assume everyone here knows the back story of Porgy and Bess. It is the Gershwin brothers' classic American opera about poor folks. African-Americans (as they were NOT called at the time.) But it could have been about Tobacco Road folks too: there are some things all us poor people have in common, no matter our cultural differences, that the One Percenters will never understand.
There’s a spanking new version of “Porgy and Bess” on the way, one that seeks to transform the classic 1935 opera into a commercial Broadway musical. To that end, the director Diane Paulus and the playwright Suzan-Lori Parks have added new scenes, punched up some dialogue, invented biographical details and — most radically — added a more upbeat ending. Such tinkering with the renowned Gershwin work was bound to draw fire from some quarters, and indeed it has, following the publication of an Arts & Leisure article by Patrick Healy about the production, which stars Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis.
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/...
An interview with the stars:
Originally conceived by George Gershwin as an "American folk opera", Porgy and Bess premiered in New York in the fall of 1935 and featured an entire cast of classically trained African-American singers—a daring artistic choice at the time. Gershwin chose the African-American musician Eva Jessye as the choral director for the opera.
The work was not widely accepted in the United States as a legitimate opera until 1976, when the Houston Grand Opera production of Gershwin's complete score established it as an artistic triumph. Nine years later, the Metropolitan Opera of New York gave their first performance of the work. This production was also broadcast as part of the ongoing Saturday afternoon live Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts. The work is now considered part of the standard operatic repertoire and is regularly performed internationally. Despite this success, the opera has been controversial; some critics from the outset have considered it a racist portrayal of African Americans.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Yes, and some critics think it's racist to point out that Mitt Romney is a white racist bastard who came out of a so-called church (read: cult) that didn't allow blacks to join until about thirty years ago. But this is about theater, not about politics...
or is it?
Apologies for the brief commercial, but no apology for Billie Holiday: