{"id":9038,"date":"2013-11-27T17:06:01","date_gmt":"2013-11-28T01:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=9038"},"modified":"2013-11-29T16:35:40","modified_gmt":"2013-11-30T00:35:40","slug":"porgy-and-bess-is-funkier-brassier-easily-appreciated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/porgy-and-bess-is-funkier-brassier-easily-appreciated\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Porgy and Bess\u2019 is funkier, brassier, easily appreciated"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nathaniel Stampley and Alicia Hall Moran portray the title roles in \u201cPorgy and Bess.\u201d Photo by Michael J. Lutch.<\/p>\n

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Kingsley Legg, in striped suit as Sportin\u2019 Life, is featured in \u201cPorgy and Bess.\u201d Photo by Michael J. Lutch.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Woody’s [rating:5]<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u201cPorgy and Bess\u201d debuted in 1935 to mixed reviews and scattered cries of racism.<\/p>\n

It took until 1976 for the controversial jazz-laced, four-hour folk opera to win legitimacy via a Houston staging, and until 2011 for a truncated form, \u201cThe Gershwins\u2019 Porgy and Bess,\u201d to become a New York smash and win a Tony.<\/p>\n

That more easily appreciated two-act Broadway version now is embedded at the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco through Dec. 8.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a must-see for anyone who gets off on George Gershwin\u2019s music.Or brother Ira\u2019s lyrics.<\/p>\n

Or re-hearing classics such as \u201cSummertime,\u201d \u201cI Got Plenty of Nuttin\u2019\u201d and \u201cA Woman Is a Sometime Thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or seeing the melodramatic, larger-than-life, tragic characters operas thrive on.<\/p>\n

The difference between the 2009 version presented by the San Francisco Opera and this compressed one becomes obvious with the first notes of the overture.<\/p>\n

This SHN offering is brassier, funkier.<\/p>\n

It swings more.<\/p>\n

The vivifying, I suspect, owes a thank-you to slice-\u2018n\u2019-dice tactics employed by Diedre L. Murray, who adapted the music; Suzan-Lori Parks, who adjusted the book; and Diane Paulus, the director (who won a Tony for \u201cPippin\u201d and also is responsible for the new Cirque du Soleil show that’s now in San Francisco).<\/p>\n

Some still may consider \u201cPorgy\u201d a stereotypical portrait of impoverished blacks that dwells on drugs, knife-fights and killing.<\/p>\n

As I watched, I mulled if a truly modernized version set in Harlem or Watts would spur the usual outsized outrage from Al Sharpton or Jessie Jackson. The fallout would be akin to the reaction when Al Jolson purportedly wanted to play Porgy in blackface.<\/p>\n

The now-familiar storyline highlights disabled beggar Porgy (Nathaniel Stampley), who liberates Bess (Alicia Hall Moran) from a life of sex and addiction. She\u2019s pursued, however, by her combative ex-lover Crown (Alvin Crawford) and Sportin\u2019 Life (Kingsley Leggs), a dealer who continually tempts her with \u201chappy dust\u201d (cocaine).<\/p>\n

Bess, who\u2019s initially ridiculed as \u201ca liquor-guzzling slut,\u201d tries overhauling her life. It\u2019s just not that simple in the fictitious all-black Catfish Row slum of Charleston, South Carolina, in the 1930s.<\/p>\n

Drugs are too easy to come by; sexism is rampant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese gals,\u201d says Sportin\u2019 Life, \u201cain\u2019t never gonna understand the ways of us menfolk.<\/p>\n

The performers\u2019 voices generally are strong \u2014 principally Alicia Hall Moran on \u201cI Loves You, Porgy\u201d (and throughout), Kingsley Leggs on \u201cIt Ain\u2019t Necessarily So\u201d and \u201cThere\u2019s a Boat Dat\u2019s Leavin\u2019 Soon,\u201d and David Hughey as Nate on \u201cIt Takes a Long Pull.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 23-piece orchestra behind them is buoyant, even though only three of its instrumentalists were plucked from the Broadway production.<\/p>\n

George Gershwin had visited the James Island Gullah community that preserved its African musical traditions, and injected some of it into \u201cPorgy.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also used his own interpretations of spirituals, work songs, blues, arias and recitatives \u2014 and borrowed from the liturgical music of his Jewish culture, particularly for \u201cIt Ain\u2019t Necessarily So.\u201dOther tunes worthy of mention are a lovely, lush duet, \u201cBess, You Is My Woman Now,\u201d and a rare comedic moment via \u201cI Hates Your Struttin\u2019 Style.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both set and props enhance the atmosphere. Their minimalism allows appropriate costuming by ESosa to transport theatergoers quickly into the bigoted Southern landscape.<\/p>\n

Often sensual, sexual choreography by Ronald K. Brown helps, too. He leans on Gullah movements but contrasts those with more traditional musical comedy modes.Flaws? Only one jumps out.<\/p>\n

Ethnic dialect makes it tough sometimes to understand what\u2019s being said or sung.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s an infrequent, minor irritation.<\/p>\n

More lofty criticism was aimed at the producers (who number in double digits) by composer Stephen Sondheim \u2014 for being arrogant and depreciating the original creators\u2019 intentions.<\/p>\n

He especially bemoaned the new production deemphasizing DuBose Heyward, who co-wrote the lyrics with Ira and created a libretto from his own novel and play, \u201cPorgy.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the opening night crowd here \u2014 which, unlike the usual San Francisco audience, was layered equally with whites and blacks, straights and gays, young and old \u2014 didn\u2019t seem to care about anything other than enjoying what was on stage.<\/p>\n

Nor, in the long run, did I.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Gershwins\u2019 Porgy and Bess: The Broadway Musical\u201d runs at the SHN Golden Gate Theatre, 1 Taylor St. (at 6th and Market), San Francisco, through Dec. 8. <\/em>Night performances Tuesdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Matinees, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, 2 p.m. Tickets: $40 to $210. Information: (888) 746-1799 or shnsf.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Woody’s [rating:5] \u201cPorgy and Bess\u201d debuted in 1935 to mixed reviews and scattered cries of racism. It took until 1976 for the controversial jazz-laced, four-hour folk opera to win…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"