[NEohioPAL] Review of "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess" at PlayhouseSquare

[Bob Abelman]

Touring 'Porgy and Bess' got plenty of somethin'

 

Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review will appear in the Cleveland Jewish News  on 2/7/14

 

 

"I'm preachin' dis sermon to show
It ain't nessa, ain't nessa
Ain't nessa, ain't nessa
It ain't necessarily so"



The national tour of "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess" - now on stage at PlayhouseSquare in downtown Cleveland - has had more than its share of adversity.

 

The musical started life as a novel by DeBose Heyward, which became a non-musical play that opened on Broadway in 1927.  It was turned into a four-hour opera eight years later that featured Porgy, a disabled black beggar living in the slums of Charleston, South Carolina, and his courageous efforts to rescue Bess from her scandalous past, the clutches of her violent former lover Crown, and the enticements of her possessive drug dealer Sporting Life.

>From the onset, some critics considered the opera a racist portrayal of African Americans, bolstered by the realization that it was written by three white men.  The music was penned by Jewish composer George Gershwin; the libretto was written by Heyward, a South Carolinian with little in common with the denizens of the fictitious Catfish Row community depicted in the opera; and the lyrics were provided by Heyward and George's older brother, Ira.

Controversy has also surrounded the classic opera's transformation into its current incarnation: a commercial Broadway musical that opened in 2012.  

 

Tony Award-winning director Diane Paulus and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks pared the production down to a more conventional 2 ½ hours and stripped away much of Gershwin's dramatic underscoring.  They incorporated dialogue, added Ronald Brown's jazzy choreography, and invented biographical details (such as how Porgy became disabled) to make the broad operatic archetypes a bit more realistic.  

 

And then there's the new title "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess," which ungraciously side-steps Heyward's contributions to the show's best musical numbers, including the lyrics for the lilting lullaby "Summertime" that opens the show and the gorgeous torch-song "My Man's Gone Now."  

 

Despite all the nay-saying from traditionalists and composer Stephen Sondheim's dismissal of the revised work in the pages of The New York Times, the musical being performed on the Palace Theatre stage is an immediately accessible, thoroughly enjoyable piece of epic entertainment. And the tour, which launched in November, has lost none of its vibrancy or intensity.    

 

Though pared down, "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess" has stayed true to the original's operatic sensibilities.  Much of the staging is overtly melodramatic, many of the voices on stage are big, bold and classically trained, and some of the portrayals - such as Alvin Crawford's enthralling depiction of the violent Crown - are broad to the near-breaking point of caricature.  Christopher Akerlind's lighting design creates the kind of elongated shadows one might find in a production of Giacomo Puccini's "Tosca" by the Metropolitan Opera company. 

 

"The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess" has also stayed true to the Broadway tradition of offering nothing but top-notch talent and a big bang for the buck.  Music director Dale Rieling's 23-piece orchestra fills the room with rich and wonderful sound and this cast is absolutely terrific.

 

As Bess, Alicia Hall Moran possesses the physicality of a woman at odds with every decision she has made in her life and a voice that drives the point home.  Every song she sings, particularly "I Loves You, Porgy" in the second act, is filled with complexity and unbridled passion.  

Nathaniel Stampley's depiction of Porgy is layered with such immense dignity that he is immediately likable and the kind of Everyman hero one cheers for from start to finish.  His "I Got Plenty of Nothing" and "Bess You Is My Woman Now" are riveting.  

Yet, it is the community of players that drives this production.  Everyone in the ensemble is in excellent voice, creates distinctive and interesting characters, and gets an opportunity to showcase their talents.  Kingsley Leggs, as the sleazy drug dealer Sporting Life, delivers a most memorable "It Ain't Necessarily So" and Denisha Ballew, as the newly widowed Serena, tears out her soul in "My Man's Gone Now."

 

While much of the criticism that surrounded the creation of "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess" is valid, so too is the joy generated by this production.  Is the Broadway version of the classic American opera a lesser work, as has been suggested in the New York press?  It ain't nessa, ain't nessa, ain't nessa, ain't nessa, it ain't necessarily so.



What:              "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess"

Where:            The Palace Theatre at PlayhouseSquare

When:             Through Sunday, February 16

Tickets:           $10-75, 216-241-6000 or www.playhousesquare.com.
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