The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, starring Audra McDonald as Bess, Norm Lewis as Porgy, and David Alan Grier as Sporting Life, officially begins its Broadway run at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York City. Time magazine calls it a "don't-miss theater event." This marks Audra McDonald's tenth turn in a Broadway production. She is the winner of four Tony Awards and has recorded four solo albums for Nonesuch.
The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, starring Audra McDonald as Bess, Norm Lewis as Porgy, and David Alan Grier as Sporting Life, officially begins its Broadway run with Opening Night at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York City tonight. Diane Paulus directs the new production of this seminal American opera, written by George Gershwin, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, and Ira Gershwin and adapted by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Suzan-Lori Parks and two-time Obie winner Diedre Murray. Time magazine calls it a "don't-miss theater event."
Previews for the Broadway production of The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess began on December 17, following Audra McDonald's critically acclaimed nationwide solo tour last fall and her performance as Bess in the Cambridge, Massachusetts, run in this production of Porgy and Bess at the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) last summer. Take a look at highlights from the A.R.T. in the video below.
"Ms. McDonald is Bess (or to use the hyperbolic speech of movie ads, 'Audra McDonald Is Bess')," exclaimed New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley during the show's run at the A.R.T., "and she can claim rights to full possession of her role, the kind of ownership that transforms a classic character forever ... Ms. McDonald’s performance is as complete and complex a work of musical portraiture as any I’ve seen in years, fulfilling the best intentions of Ms. Paulus and Ms. Parks." The Boston Globe's Don Aucoin wrote that "in Audra McDonald, this production boasts a Bess for the ages."
The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess at the Richard Rodgers Theater marks Audra McDonald's tenth turn in a Broadway production. She is the winner of four Tony Awards, for Carousel (1994), Master Class (1996), Ragtime (1998), and A Raisin in the Sun (2004), and has recorded four solo albums for Nonesuch Records: Way Back to Paradise (1998), How Glory Goes (2000), Happy Songs (2002), and Build a Bridge (2006).
For more information on The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess and tickets, go to porgyandbessonbroadway.com. For a look at Audra McDonald's Nonesuch Records catalog, head to the Nonesuch Store now.
- Log in to post comments
