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UP FIRST: Follies!
UP FIRST: Follies!
NEXT: Woody Allen and Elaine May are Relatively Speaking
NEXT: Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett climb The Mountaintop
NEXT: Family dysfunction in Other Desert Cities
NEXT: “Day by Day” with Godspell
NEXT: Girls call “time out” in Lysistrata Jones
NEXT: Samantha Jones is sexy in another city in Private Lives
Don’t cry for Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin
NEXT: Alan Rickman Gives The Seminar
NEXT: Is it the same old Porgy and Bess?
THE GERSHWINS’ PORGY AND BESS
Richard Rodgers Theatre, previews begin Dec 17
Arguably the most important musical opera in American history, Porgy and Bess shares the story of a beautiful African-American drug addict and her crippled lover on Charleston’s Catfish Row in the early 1920s. The show birthed several unforgettable songs, including “Summertime” and “I Loves You, Porgy.”
Director Diane Paulus (Hair) and Pulitzer-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks (Topdog/Underdog) have re-imagined the current Broadway-bound production—or as Paulus says, they’re “excavating and shaping” the story (and especially its female lead). It’s now closer to a traditional musical, with more backstory and less tragedy. Theater purists (most notably Stephen Sondheim) are outraged and, after opening in Cambridge last week, the show has gotten so-so reviews.
We’ll reserve judgment until the curtain goes up at the Richard Rodgers, but this one show everyone will be talking about—whether they’ve seen it or not.
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MikeE
“Arguably one of the most important musicals in American history”????????
It’s a fucking OPERA, not a musical.
THAT is why it’s getting such horrid press and reviews.
The producers/director have the gall to alter what is already a perfect piece of classical music-theater. THAT is why it is causing so much “outrage”.
If you don’t understand the difference between a musical and an opera, then you shouldn’t bother reporting on them.
Coyote40
Broadway is an overpriced bore these days.
Jack J.
Grant Shaud was on MURPHY BROWN, not MELROSE PLACE. Sheesh.
Chopsie
GODSPELL? Blecch… The most annoying Xian BS I ever sat through.
Ogre Magi
GODSPELL
is nothing but christian propaganda
Abel
@Chopsie: Amen to that!
Chancery
I’m a little bit interested in the updated version of “Evita”, I’ll admit.