bjbjLULU JEFFREY BROWN: And finally tonight, a new interpretation of a classic opera, currently
in a pre-Broadway run in Cambridge, Mass. Our story comes from PBS station WGBH in Boston.
The reporter is Jared Bowen. JARED BOWEN, WGBH: "Porgy and Bess," much like the tale
of tortured romance it tells, has been mightily tossed by storms during its 76-year history,
caught in tempests over creative license and charges of racism. Now there is controversy
once again, as the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass., stages a new adaptation.
(SINGING) JARED BOWEN: The show is set in Catfish Row, a fictionalized enclave of Charleston,
S.C., where drugs and violence are pervasive. It's after a murder that the drug-addled Bess
lands in the arms of the disabled beggar Porgy. This view of African-American life in the
1930s came from the show's white creators, George and Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward.
David Alan Grier plays Sporting Life, a drug dealer. DAVID ALAN GRIER, actor: It was a
different time. You know, the outlet for black voices, black intellectuals to tell our story
was different. JARED BOWEN: From the moment George Gershwin chose to adopt DuBose Heyward's
novel "Porgy" into an opera, there's been controversy, controversy that he dare to create
anything but popular music, that he dare write music solely for African-American performers
at a time when much of the country was segregated, and that he presumed to be able to tell the
story of a black community. Audra McDonald plays Bess. AUDRA MCDONALD, actress: When
people say, is "Porgy and Bess" racist, I say no, just because I really feel that he
had the best intentions when he wrote it. He wanted to get in and be inside of a community,
show their wants, their desires, their hopes, their dreams, their fears. JARED BOWEN: When
it debuted at Boston's Colonial Theatre in September 1935 and premiered on Broadway shortly
after, "Porgy and Bess" was punctuated with pointed stereotypes and grossly derogatory
terms. Adapting the opera today for the ART musical is Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright
Suzan-Lori Parks. SUZAN-LORI PARKS, playwright: I didn't approach as, you know, it's a racist
show, so I have to make it politically correct. Not at all. It's a show with some dramatic
holes, some missteps dramatically. I have to make it right. I have to flesh out the
characters. (SINGING) AUDRA MCDONALD: From the very beginning, we were setting out to
make sure that this is about people and their struggles and their story, and really focusing
on the dramatic story, as opposed to look at all those black people up there. Boy, they
sing well and, oh, they get passionate. And then they kill and they drink the whiskey,
and they smoke the, you know, whatever. So I don't feel like I have had to stress about
that in any way. JARED BOWEN: Some of the original opera's scenes were too stereotypical
for Parks. SUZAN-LORI PARKS: The mammy, a large woman with a hand on the hip doing that,
you know, the Aunt Jemima type kind of thing, and then the cowering, well-dressed dandy:
Oh, I'm scared. The dandy and the mammy. I don't know any -- any street character like
Sporting Life who would take this kind of crap from anybody. So, instead of a mammy
moment, I made a mommy moment, in which I said, well, how can this moment work in the
real world? And I thought, oh, she knows his mother. And any tough guy we know, all tough
guys, if you start saying, hey, I know your mother and I'm going to tell on you, they're
like, ah, come on, don't be telling my mama. JARED BOWEN: The ART says it was the Gershwin
estate that invited changing when it hand-picked artistic creator Diane Paulus to create a
musical from the original opera. DIANE PAULUS, "Porgy and Bess": To make "Porgy and Bess"
into more of a musical, it's about breathing, stopping, letting air come in, letting silence
play a role and also letting there be dialogue. ACTOR: Look at that smile you got. ACTRESS:
What you been up to? ACTOR: Nothing. SUZAN-LORI PARKS: Sometimes, I need to add words, sometimes
whole new scenes, sometimes take an old scene and turn it inside-out and make it new. (SINGING)
JARED BOWEN: But it's these types of changes that have riled some, like Stephen Sondheim,
who delivered the most thunderous criticism in August when, in learning of the changes,
but without having seen the show, he wrote The New York Times: "There is a difference
between reinterpretation and wholesale rewriting. Advertise it honestly as Diane Paulus' 'Porgy
and Bess,' and to hell with the real one." SUZAN-LORI PARKS: The purist, I mean, they
have their right, if that's how they want to spend their energy. It's such a great opera.
And if they want to see it in its purest state -- like, if they want to see Shakespeare done
in the Globe with bearbaiting and people who haven't bathed recently and all men on stage,
they can -- you know, I'm sure there are places that will provide that opportunity for them.
DAVID ALAN GRIER: I have never done Shakespeare in 30 years where they didn't cut, snip, change
this, get rid of that. Hamlet's speech is too long. You know, let's do this. And that's
just Gibson, Chekhov, everybody. JARED BOWEN: In its storied history, "Porgy and Bess" has
evolved since its opening night in Boston. It's gone from opera to film to the musical.
After the Boston debut, Gershwin immediately cut 45 minutes from the show. And two years
later, after George's untimely death, Ira Gershwin also made changes. DIANE PAULUS:
There were things that were still in motion, not to say that the work we have from Gershwin
isn't a masterpiece -- it is -- but that there was potential in there that was being wrestled
with. AUDRA MCDONALD: People have been trying to put it in a box for all these years. It's
an opera. It's a musical. It's -- I think it just continues to kind of defy and sort
of -- it's like this big, large squid that just keeps plopping out, and you're like,
no, I'm all of these things. JARED BOWEN: Most notably, it's an American story that
continues to resonate and provoke. urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags PlaceType urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags
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